


Shielded Bliss

by ZVArmy



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 02:37:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 41
Words: 110,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12159831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZVArmy/pseuds/ZVArmy
Summary: A fiery affair has been going on between Dean Ambrose and Alexa Bliss for some time. Will the seemingly unlikely couple be accepted by the locker room when they go public, so soon after Dean ended his relationship with Renee Young?





	1. Chapter 1

Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss walked out of Hunter Helmsley's office with some surprising news. It was news that she liked. Creative ideas in WWE were hit and miss at best, but this promised to be a good one, if they handled it right. She could hardly wait to get back to the women's locker room to tell the others what was going on.

A door opened further along the hallway. Dean Ambrose's head poked out, looking in her direction. "In here," he said gruffly, before disappearing back inside.

The diminutive diva realised that Dean had been waiting in there for her, knowing that she would come past on her way back to the locker room. Making sure that no one was around to see, she scuttled over to the room he was in and slipped inside. Dean was on her even before the door closed, pinned her against the wall and kissing her with a desire that burned as hot as the sun. Alexa was unable to prevent herself from moaning in pleasure at the sensations that coursed through her body as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. No man had ever made her feel quite as good as this before. For weeks now, this had been going on. In empty rooms like this one at the arenas, in hotel rooms, even in the back of his hire car from time to time. Ever since Dean had broken off his relationship with Renee, he and Alexa hadn't been able to get enough of each other. Thankfully, they were the only ones who knew that their affair had actually started at least a month before Dean had done the right thing and ended it with his former lover.

"I have news," Alexa said breathlessly between his frantic kisses.

"I don't give a fuck," Dean grunted, nipping at the side of her neck, sending an intense tingling feeling through her. It wasn't that he only wanted her for sex, she knew, it was just that right now he wanted sex really badly, as did she. It had been nearly forty eight hours since the last time, and that was probably something of a record for them.

The news could wait. Alexa struggled to unbutton his jeans, not an easy task when she was stuck between him and the wall of the empty office they were standing in. "I've been thinking about this all day," she breathed when she felt how hard he was.

"Me too, Little Miss Bliss." Dean loved to use her on-screen nickname. After all, it was perfect for her. He couldn't risk carrying her over to the nearby desk as they would be visible through the window in the door. Against the wall was going to have to do. He placed his hands under her butt and lifted her up.

"Oh, Dean," Alexa gasped, loving how he took charge of her.

A few breathless minutes later, it was over. "Damn, that's better," Dean said, breathing deeply as he lowered her back to the floor.

Alexa just looked up at him with a sultry expression on her face while she tried to get her breath back.

"What news?" he asked after a moment. It was typical of him to move between subjects so quickly, and not always at the appropriate moment.

"You want me to tell you now?" Alexa asked.

Dean shrugged. "You brought it up. If it was okay to talk about then, why not now?"

It was a good point, Alexa had to admit. "This new gimmick you guys have, The Shield for hire, or whatever. I'm going to be a part of it, starting tonight. I'm going to be hiring Lucy to be my partner."

Lucy Thorne was the fourth member of the popular group, having been added to the team a year or so earlier. A favourite and personal friend of Stephanie McMahon, the English woman had never found herself struggling for a push during her time with WWE, despite not being the most technically proficient wrestler on the women's roster by any means. What Lucy did have, however, was height, and a powerful physique and style in the ring, similar in many ways to her teammate Roman Reigns. Lucy was also in a relationship with Seth Rollins, another thing that wasn't doing her career prospects any harm. Alexa wasn't resentful of Thorne's clout within the company, though, as some of the women were. She and Lucy had never had a problem with each other.

"You and Lucy? I guess that works," Dean said. Then he changed the subject again. "We'd better get out of here before someone misses one of us, or someone walks in here."

"Okay, but Dean?"

"What?"

"I'm starting to get sick of sneaking around," Alexa said, almost whining. "How long are we going to have to do this for? You broke up with Renee weeks ago."

"We need to give it a few more weeks, to make sure a shit storm doesn't blow up about it. A lot of people like Renee around here. Hell, I don't want to hurt her any more than breaking up with her already did," he said frankly. "I didn't break up with her because I wanted to hurt her, I did it because I couldn't resist you."

"I didn't think you'd worry about a storm blowing up," Alexa said sulkily, ignoring the rest of what he had said. "That kind of thing doesn't usually bother you."

"I wasn't bothered for me, I was bothered for you," Dean clarified. "Who do you think would get the most grief if everyone found out we were together when I was still with Renee? It wouldn't be me. You'd automatically be made out to be a slut."

"That's so unfair, and it's sexist," Alexa protested, even though she knew he was right.

"Yep, but that's how things go. The guy gets treated like some kind of hero, yet the girl is a slut. So like I said, let's keep it quiet for another few weeks, so we can make like this thing between us started when I was single, okay?"

"Okay," Alexa conceded with a sigh.

Dean leaned down and kissed her. "Good girl. Now come on, let's get out of here."

* * *

_A/N: For people who have read my other works, yes, this story follows on from Thorne in the Side. However, I'm writing it so that it is also a stand alone story._


	2. Chapter 2

"Where have you been?" Seth Rollins asked when Dean walked back into The Shield's locker room.

"The crapper," Dean lied easily.

"You need to eat more fibre if it takes you that long to have a shit," Roman quipped, making the finishing touches to his ring attire in the mirror at the far end of the room.

Never one to be outdone when it came to banter, Dean had a quick comeback. "It wasn't doing it that was the problem, it was breaking it in half with the brush so I could flush it."

"That's disgusting," Seth said, laughing.

"It'll be a danger to shipping if it gets out to sea," Dean went on, now that he had the upper hand.

"Makes me wonder what you've had up your ass for something that big to come out," Roman hit back, making the other two men laugh hard.

"Looks like he's onto us, Seth," Dean grinned.

"It was bound to happen eventually," Seth said. With that, the joking was over. He got up off his steel chair and made for the door. "Come on, Hunter wants to see us now you're back."

"Time to find out what they're doing next with this new angle of ours," Roman added as he walked past Dean and out of the door.

Dean thought better of announcing that he already knew one aspect of the news they were about to get. The Shield's new gimmick was that they had made themselves available for hire by other superstars, effectively as security or bodyguards. In many ways, it was similar to the APA gimmick from way back when, only now with a larger and more dominant team. Lucy Thorne, the team's fourth member, was going to be hired by Alexa, Dean knew. Whether Seth's girl would take kindly to that was anyone's guess. Lucy was temperamental at the best of times. In any event, Dean had bigger concerns about the new angle. "I don't really like this idea," he complained, trailing his two brothers along the hallway.

"I know what you mean," Roman had to agree. "The Shield are supposed to be the hounds of justice, not mercenaries."

"True, but they're trying to evolve us," Seth countered. Of the four members of the group, he was the only one who had admitted to liking the idea when they first heard about it. "Look at someone like Jericho. How many different versions of his character have there been? And he's probably got the best one of the lot going on right now. You have to be willing to change things up, or you risk going stale. I say we get behind this and show some faith in Hunter. It was his idea, not Vince's."

"We've got no choice but to get behind it," Roman said matter of fact. "I just hope they don't screw us over with it. I don't want our entire gimmick to become standing guard for other people."

"Come on, Rome, that's not going to happen. We're one of the company's best assets, and everyone knows it. It's not like you to be negative."

"I'm not being negative, I'm just not convinced," Roman clarified.

"Good, because it's bad enough with Lucy," Seth said with a small sigh. "She's not been happy with our creative since they pulled the plug on the idea of turning us heel."

"Good thing they did," Dean put in. "Having us kidnap Steph and make Hunter give up his position of power was about as likely to turn us heel as if we'd decided to beat up Michael Cole."

They were approaching the women's locker room, and they could see Lucy waiting outside for them, clearly also having gotten a summons to see the boss. To Seth's surprise, his girl looked happier than he had expected.

* * *

The women's locker room was full when Alexa returned from her trip to see Hunter, her diversion into an office with Dean, then a hurried trip to the bathrooms. "Lucy, have you got a minute?" she had asked carefully, approaching the English woman, who was talking to Bayley, one of her few close friends in the locker room.

"I suppose," Lucy said indifferently, looking down at Alexa, who was fully eight inches shorter than her. "What is it?"

"Can we, uh…" Alexa said, gesturing to a quiet corner of the room where they might be able to talk without others joining in. She wasn't exactly sure how she wanted to approach this conversation. It was well known that Lucy could be awkward to speak to, and was as likely to react negatively as positively to suggestions, largely depending on what kind of mood she was in. But, as proven by Bayley and Charlotte, it was possible to become friendly with her. That was the ideal outcome for Alexa, who didn't want to find herself in the situation of having an on-screen partner who she didn't get along with off-screen. That kind of thing could make the job particularly unpleasant.

Without comment, Lucy led the way over to the corner. "What's this about?" she asked when they had some privacy. Her tone wasn't outright hostile, but she clearly wasn't in a particularly patient frame of mind.

Alexa decided it would be best to get straight to the point. "I just came back from Hunter's office. He wanted to see me about the new plan they have for me and my title reign."

"I've got to go and see him myself in a minute," Lucy said. "So, let me put two and two together and guess, he's going to tell me I'm working with you?"

"Right," Alexa said, glad that Lucy didn't seem overtly hostile to the idea so far. "Obviously there's the thing with The Shield being for hire for security now. The idea is that I'm going to hire you to be my partner, basically to protect the title."

Lucy took a moment to ponder that, then, to Alexa's relief, she gave a hint of a smile. "Not so much a partner then. Sounds like more of a bodyguard to me."

"Yeah, in some ways I guess it will play out like that," Alexa agreed, sounding as positive as she dared without wanting to push it too far. "I can picture myself running and hiding behind you when someone like Nia or Sasha is trying to get their hands on me."

That image made Lucy laugh. "I can see that. I'm imagining you peeking out from behind me and telling me to get them."

"Yeah, then you wade in there and hit some of your power moves. When you're done, I get the cheap win and make like I did all the hard work."

"Then I can lay you out as well," Lucy chuckled.

"That's one thing that could happen for sure," Alexa agreed with a grin. "I think there's a lot we could do with this. Some of it good storytelling, some of it really funny comedy. Wrestling doesn't always have to be serious."

Lucy nodded slowly. One of the things she had tried to do a lot more since she had been with Seth was to enjoy her wrestling instead of just looking at it as a well-paying job. It was true that there could be some comedy in the little and large dynamic between her and Alexa. It was also possible that they might make quite a tag team. As champion, Alexa played the part of a cowardly champion, but she was rarely booked to look weak in the ring. "Alright," she decided, "I'll tell Hunter I'm on-board with this. I think it could be fun, but I do have one condition."

"Okay," Alexa said, using the word almost as a question.

"My character has to act like she's reluctant to take your money and help you. That's the only way I can see this working, or making sense."

"Definitely," Alexa said, nodding. "I was thinking the same thing." The more she thought about the new team, if that was the right word to use, the more she felt positive about it.

"Right, well, I'd better go and see Hunter," Lucy said. "Apparently he wants to see the guys as well, so I'll wait for them outside."

"Catch you later," Alexa said politely. As she watched the English woman leave the room, she let out a sigh of relief. The conversation could have gone really badly if Lucy had hated the idea of their partnership, but instead she was up for it. Ever the dreamer, Alexa already had grand visions of moments that could possibly happen in the ring with this new team. She couldn't wait to get started.

Outside in the hallway, Lucy had to wait a couple of minutes before the rest of her team showed up, on their way to Hunter's office.

"Hey," Seth greeted her, then gave her a peck on the cheek. "You look like you're in a good mood."

"It's not that uncommon, Seth," Lucy said, feigning offense.

"That's not what I meant," he replied with a chuckle. "I meant you've obviously heard why we're going to see Hunter, yet you don't seem like you're ready to give him a piece of your mind about this Shield for hire idea. You've not been positive about it before now."

"Well, now I am. Apparently I'm going to be working with Alexa. She'll be hiring me as some kind of bodyguard. I actually think there's something in the idea, and we might be able to work well with each other."

All three men were pleased to hear that, most of all Dean. As Roman, Seth and Lucy chatted, he was thinking that the last thing he had wanted was to have to break the news of his relationship with Alexa, whenever the time was right to do so, if she happened to be disliked by Lucy. That could have made things very awkward, and could even have been a divisive influence on the group. But thankfully, that didn't seem like it was going to be a problem. Now all they had to do was keep their relationship quiet for long enough to avoid a shit storm with the rest of the locker room, who would be quick to jump to Renee's defense if his infidelity was revealed, or even suspected.

"Don't get too excited Dean, whatever you do," Lucy quipped at him, making him realise that he had been quiet for too long, lost in his thoughts.

"Sorry," he fumbled. "It's, uh, good that you like what they're asking you to do."

Roman punched him on the shoulder. "He's lost for words because you mentioned Alexa."

That took Dean totally by surprise. Had the guys already busted him? If so, he didn't know how. "What are you talking about now?" he asked, trying to play it cool.

Raising an eyebrow at him, Seth said, "Do you really think we've not seen how you've been looking at her anytime we've seen her these past couple of weeks; in catering; in the tour bus; whatever."

Dean sighed. Yes, he was busted, at least as far as being attracted to Alexa was concerned. They didn't seem to think that he had done anything about it yet, however. He would keep it that way for as long as he could. "Fine, I think she's hot," he admitted. "But it's still soon, after Renee."

"I get that," Lucy said sympathetically, another surprise for Dean. They were coming thick and fast in this conversation. "You two can leave him alone," she ordered Seth and Roman. "Now, come on, before Hunter sends out a search party."


	3. Chapter 3

After the first match on Raw, Alexa Bliss was shown entering the arena from the parking garage, wearing her ring attire and carrying her prized title belt over her shoulder.

"There's Alexa Bliss, the Raw Women's Champion," Michael Cole announced on commentary.

Corey Graves said, "To say Little Miss Bliss is a marked woman would be a major understatement. Since she became champion, Alexa has managed to alienate all of the other women on the roster, including Nia Jax, who was at one time her best friend."

"I don't know if she's alienated them, of they all just want what Alexa has; the Raw Women's Championship," Booker T countered.

Alexa didn't get far along the hallway before she encountered one of the women who was hostile to her. Bayley was standing off to one side, but she stepped forward when Bliss approached, partially blocking her path and eyeing the title belt.

"Just so you know, I'm going to do everything I can to win that championship," she said, coming about as close to threatening as she was ever likely to get.

Looking warily up at Bayley, Alexa carefully stepped past her without comment and continued along the hallway. Only a few seconds later, she had to stop again. Sasha Banks was standing directly in her way, with a distinctly aggressive expression on her face.

"You can swagger around here with that belt all you want, booboo," she said in a threatening manner. "But you should know that I'm coming for you. I'm coming for you, and I'm going to take it from you."

Alexa looked up at her with an expression that looked somewhere between startled and frightened, but then she was able to dismiss those emotions and give a dismissive grunt as she pushed past Sasha. Still looking at the woman who had just accosted her, she began to walk away, but crashed into what might as well have been a brick wall. The camera panned out to reveal that the obstruction was in fact Nia Jax, standing there with her arms crossed over her chest as she towered over the champion.

Alexa gulped, turned to face the person she had bumped into, and slowly looked up to meet the eyes of the latest and most intimidating person who had a problem with her. "Nia..." she began, in attempt at self defense.

"Some day real soon, you're going to get yours," Nia said, making it sound more like a promise than a threat.

Panicked, Alexa turned and scuttled away down a nearby hallway. Upon reaching the next corner, she found herself confronted by Emma, Alicia Fox, Mickie James and Dana Brooke, none of whom seemed pleased to see her.

"Hey, look, it's Alexa, with my title belt," Emma said nastily, stepping forward.

With a cry of fright, Alexa changed direction again and hurried along another hallway, looking back over her shoulder to make sure no one was persuing her. Rounding a corner, she saw Raw's General Manager Kurt Angle talking to a referee and rushed over to him. "Kurt, you've got to do something," she pleaded breathlessly. "Everyone on the roster is after me and my title. They're all ganging up on me and threatening me. It's out of control. You're supposed to be in charge around here, do something!"

"Well, I think you've brought the problems you have on yourself, so there's not much I can do to help you," Kurt said. Then he looked over to a nearby locker room door, which had a large Shield logo on it. "If I were you, I'd be thinking about getting myself some protection." With that, the GM walked away.

"Yes," Alexa said as the wisdom of his words dawned on her. "Protection. That's exactly what I need." Decision made, she dashed over to the door to The Shield's locker room and shoved it open. All four members of the group were in there, lounging on steel chairs as they watched the highlights of the previous match on a monitor.

"Ever heard of knocking?" Roman asked irritably.

"Yeah, get out of here," Lucy ordered.

"And close the door," Dean added.

"Can't you see we're busy?" Seth asked, laughing since the opposite was obviously the case.

"I'm here for a reason," Alexa said, refusing to turn and leave. "I need protection. You guys are in the business of protection now, right?"

"We are," Dean admitted.

"But we're picky about who we work for," Lucy said, looking distastefully at the champion, who clearly didn't meet the required standard.

"Forget that crap," Alexa snapped. "I need protection and I have good money to offer."

With a theatrical sigh, Lucy sat up straight and scrutinised Alexa more carefully. "How much money? Because this is going to cost you."

* * *

Later in the show, a segment was underway in the ring. Bayley, Sasha, then Nia had all come out, each saying in turn that they wanted, and felt entitled to a match with Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women's Championship. They had then gotten into an argument with each other over who was most deserving of the opportunity.

"This is crazy," Graves said. "We've got three ladies out here who all want to tear Alexa Bliss limb from limb."

"You reap what you sow," Cole said without a hint of sympathy. Just then, Alexa's music hit. The argument in the ring immediately stopped, with all three women focusing their angry gazes on the stage.

"Speak of the devil, or should I say the wicked witch," Booker said. "Here's Alexa Bliss. I don't know what she's thinking, but if I was her, coming out here is the last thing I would have done right now."

Alexa stopped near the bottom of the entrance ramp, microphone in hand. She clearly had no intention of going any closer to the ring. "I'd like to thank all of you for the warm welcome back there earlier," she began sarcastically. "But don't worry, I know what it was really all about: jealousy. All three of you are jealous of me because I'm the only goddess in WWE, and I have something that none of you have. Yes, the Raw Women's Championship belongs to me, and there's nothing any of you can do about it. I'm better than all of you, and even more importantly, I'm much smarter than all of you."

"Why don't we see about that right now?" Sasha threatened, dropping her mic.

Alexa gave one of her best evil, yet strangely beautiful grins. "That wouldn't be a good idea," she warned. At that moment, The Shield's music hit, to a mixed reaction from the fans. Lucy Thorne helping Alexa wasn't a popular move, and in any case the English star was a tweener at best.

In familiar style, Lucy sauntered out onto the stage in her all black Shield ring attire, including body armour and leather gloves. In the ring, Bayley, Sasha and Nia now seemed less sure about the wisdom of trying to get their hands on Alexa.

Lucy reached where Alexa was standing and snatched the microphone from her new client so that she could address the other three women. She led the way under the bottom rope and into the ring. "I'm putting you all on notice: Anyone who touches Alexa outside of a sanctioned match will answer to me, and that's not a position you want to put yourselves in, trust me."

Having heard enough, Sasha rushed Lucy, flailing away at her with right hands.

"I don't think Sasha Banks agrees with Thorne's assessment," Cole said. "And look at Alexa; I don't think she could have bailed out of the ring any faster if she had tried."

Unfortunately for Sasha, her punches didn't seem to be having much of an effect on the larger woman she was trying to beat down. Lucy shoved her away as hard as she could, sending her flying halfway across the ring. When Sasha bounced back to her feet, Lucy was already running at her. With perfect timing, she launched into her signature spinning heel kick.

"Down goes Banks," Graves called out. "That spinning heel kick nearly took her head off."

Bayley was next to attack Alexa's new bodyguard. As Lucy got back up, Bayley rushed over and wrapped her arms around her, in the position for her Bayley-to-Belly finisher. She hadn't bargained on getting a headbutt to the face before she could deliver the move.

"Oh, that was a vicious headbutt," Booker said as Bayley staggered around the ring, covering her face with her hands. Worse was to come. Lucy was waiting in position to deliver her own finishing move, a sit out piledriver which had the name Thorne in the Side.

"Bayley, that's not where you want to be," Graves said when Lucy scooped her up onto her shoulders.

"Thorne in the Side!" Cole called out. "Lucy Thorne has taken out both Bayley and Sasha Banks."

That left one more person to deal with. Nia had been standing in the corner of the ring, impassively watching the fighting. When Lucy got back up again, Nia stepped forward and squared up to her. The crowd popped at the impending confrontation between the two most physical women on the Raw roster, who were now standing nose to nose. Before they could come to blows, Kurt Angle's music hit.

"Enough! That's enough!" he ordered over the top of his music as he walked out onto the stage. "Lucy, Nia, knock it off right now! Back off, both of you!"

With an expression that told Nia she had just gotten lucky, Lucy backed away and rolled out of the ring under the bottom rope, where Alexa was waiting with a satisfied smile on her face. She was clearly happy with the results she was getting for her money so far. The two new allies of sorts headed up the ramp towards Kurt.

"Alexa, I don't know what you're smiling about," Kurt said. "I advised you to think about getting protection. I didn't say come out here and start a fight with half the locker room. Since you seem to want a fight so much, you can have one later tonight, in a non-title match. Let's see if you're as happy after you go one on one with Nia Jax."

"That's not fair! She's going to murder me!" Alexa could be heard protesting to Lucy over the crowd's cheers, as if she could do anything about the decision Angle had made.

"Just go!" Lucy ordered her, pointing up the ramp. The message was clear: protecting Alexa was what she was being paid for, not being sympathetic to her.

* * *

Later in the night, Lucy and Alexa were shown in a hallway. The champion was pacing back and forth, her mood having not improved since the earlier announcement that she was going to be facing Nia Jax one on one in a match. "This was not supposed to happen," she ranted. "How are you supposed to protect me when I'm in a match with Nia?"

"You got yourself into this," Lucy said indifferently. "I told you not to go out there and confront them, but you had to ignore me and shoot your mouth off. I told them that if they touched you outside of a match, they would answer to me, but now you  _are_  in a match. There's nothing I can do for you."

"That's not good enough!" Alexa screamed, looking up at Lucy with her fists clenched together at her sides.

The reaction she got was definitely what she had wanted. Lucy grabbed her around the throat, lifted her off her feet and pinned her against the wall. "Speak to me like that again, you'll be wanting protection from me, understand?"

When she was dropped back to the ground, Alexa collapsed to a sitting position, gasping for breath and rubbing at her throat. "I'm sorry," she managed to say. "I didn't mean to snap at you. Just do whatever you can to help, okay?"

With a roll of her eyes, Lucy relented. "Fine, I'll be at ringside."

Alexa extended her hand, wanting to be helped up off the floor. Lucy studied her for a second, then took her hand and lifted her to her feet. It was the first sign of them cooperating with each other, albeit a very small one.

* * *

The fact that Nia had dominated the match right from the start was not a surprise to anyone. As promised, Lucy had followed the champion to the ring, but had stood at ringside without doing anything to help while Alexa took power move after power move from her opponent. After a few minutes of this, it seemed like the end could be near. Sure enough, the next move Nia hit was one of her signatures.

"Samoan drop! That has to be it!" Booker called out.

Before Nia could make a cover, Lucy got up on the ring apron. Nia got up and walked over to her, then shoved her off the apron and into the ringside barrier.

The distraction had served its purpose. Alexa scurring up behind her opponent, grabbed her legs and rolled her over into a pinning combination.

"Wait a minute!" Cole objected.

"Yes, Alexa wins!" Graves said when the referee got the three count. "Little Miss Bliss stole one thanks to Lucy Thorne, her new bodyguard."

Alexa began to celebrate the win, but she should have known better. Nia had gotten straight up after the pin, and now ran through the back of Bliss like a train running over a shopping cart. Nia glared down at her for a moment, then ran over and bounced off the ropes.

"Oh, what a leg drop!" Cole said as Nia's music began to play. "Alexa Bliss may have won the match, but she definitely lost the war!"

After delivering a few angry words to the unconscious champion, Nia left the ring.

Several moments later, after the music had been faded out, Lucy was back on her feet. She entered the ring, walked over to the motionless body of Alexa and stood there for a moment, looking down at her, seemingly unsure about what to do. The crowd's reaction seemed to suggest they thought another beating might be about to come Bliss's way. They were wrong. Lucy took Alexa's arm and used it to drag her over to the ropes. She rolled out of the ring, then hoisted Alexa up and over her shoulder.

"Lucy Thorne is carrying Alexa Bliss out of the arena," Graves said, bemused by the extraordinary sight. "Guys, I just have a feeling that we might have seen the start of a beautiful friendship here tonight, gentlemen."

"I don't know about a friendship," Booker said. "But if Thorne and Bliss can get on the same page, that's not going to be good news for the rest of the women's division."

 


	4. Chapter 4

"They actually like them," Seth said, pleasantly surprised. He was checking the reaction on Twitter to the new Bliss/Thorne combination. There were many more positive tweets than he had expected to find. The most popular one, which already had hundreds of likes and retweets, was a picture of Lucy carrying Alexa up the entrance ramp, slung over her shoulder. The caption read, 'I love these two already.'

"Let's have a look," Dean said, taking the phone before it was offered. He had to smile at the picture. The size difference between the two women made it amusing before you considered anything else. In that moment, he would have liked to have been able to talk to Seth about the fact that he was sleeping with Alexa. Indeed, he knew he could do so in confidence, but it just didn't feel like the right time, not quite yet. "It's a good pic," he said instead, passing the phone back over. If he couldn't talk about his own relationship, he could talk about Seth's instead. "Are you ever going to ask her to marry you?"

Seth sighed. It was a difficult subject. Nine months earlier, he had been all set to propose to Lucy at the after party following Wrestlemania 33, but that plan had gone awry as he had ended up in hospital that night with a concussion, thanks to Finn Balor accidentally kicking him in the head during their match. The fact that the proposal hadn't happened that night had given Seth some more thinking time on the matter and he had come to the conclusion that asking the big question after they had been together for just a couple of months actually wasn't a good idea. Since then, the moment had never seemed right. He and Lucy were happy and they both loved each other, was that not good enough?

"You're not going to ask her, are you?" Dean realised, seeing the expression on his friend's face. "I thought things were going great with you guys?"

"They are," Seth said quickly, not wanting to give the wrong impression. "Actually, that's part of the problem. What if I asked her and she said no for some reason? It might ruin what we have, and I don't want that to happen. That's what I'm worried about."

"Bro, that's not going to happen. You guys have been together for, like, a year now. If she was going to kick your ass to the curb, she would have done it by now."

Seth managed a thin smile at the humour. "It's been about nine months, not a year. But seriously, I don't want to do something that might upset the balance, or whatever the right term is."

Even Dean realised that this wasn't a good time to continue cracking jokes. Seth was looking for serious advice, although probably not from the best source. "I think you should ask her," he said seriously. "You guys love each other, everyone can tell that. You're very happy together, and I know you already got the blessing from her family. I'd say there's a zero per-cent chance she would say no if you asked her, and you would make her feel really special. Besides, you know how girls are into the whole commitment bit. If anything, she's more likely to be wondering why you've not asked her yet. What did you even do with the ring you had, anyway?"

"Rome has it. I didn't want Lucy to find it, so I gave it to him for safe keeping. Maybe you have a point there, though," Seth said thoughtfully. "Do you really think she might be worried that I have a lack of commitment?"

"Not necessarily," Dean shrugged. "But I know she wouldn't be worried about a lack of commitment if you asked her to marry you. My advice is put some thought into it, decide when the right moment would be, and pop the question."

Seth gave his friend a slap on the shoulder. "Thanks, man. That just might a good plan." He paused for a second, then said, "You know, it's really a shame things didn't work out with you and Renee."

That caught Dean off guard. "Why do you say that?"

"Because it's true," Seth said simply. "You guys always seemed happy together, then it just seemed like one day, boom, you broke it off. I get that other stuff must have been going on behind the scenes, but I just didn't ever imagine the two of you not working out."

"Yeah, well, things change," Dean mumbled.

"Things change?" Seth furrowed his brow. There was something about the way Dean had said it that didn't seem right. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Dean felt the overwhelming urge to tell his friend the truth about Alexa and why he had ended the relationship with Renee, to unload the burden of silence from his shoulders as much as anything else. After all, it wasn't as if he doubted Seth's trustworthiness. The three original Shield members were close enough to confide anything in each other. Speaking up would be hypocritical, however, after he had specifically told Alexa earlier in the night that they should keep their mouths shut, when she had wanted to do the opposite. Closing his eyes for a second, Dean convinced himself to go for it. "I broke it off for a reason," he said.

"What reason?" Seth asked, still confused.

"I need you to keep this between the two of us," Dean insisted. "Literally no one else knows, so I'll know where it's come from if it gets around."

"Dude, you can trust me. I won't say anything to anyone. What's going on?"

"I'm seeing Alexa," Dean admitted.

"Really?" Seth asked, stretching the word out. It was surprising news, to say the least. Then the implication of what Dean was saying dawned on him. "Wait, you broke it off with Renee because you wanted to be with Alexa? Or because you were with her already? Were you cheating?"

Dean took a deep breath and looked down at the floor. He wasn't exactly proud of his actions. "Yeah, I was cheating, but Renee doesn't know that. She doesn't even know I'm with Alexa now. Like I said, you're the only one either of us has told."

"Fuck's sake, Dean," Seth sighed. "What were you thinking? You walked away from what you had with Renee just to get you some fresh pussy? Haven't you heard the expression the grass is always greener?"

"I'm not looking for you to fucking judge me," Dean bristled, getting up and starting to pace around the room. "Renee was starting to get all cosy and wanting to settle down. She even talked about having kids once. I'm not about that shit, man. I'm not the kind of guy who settles down and has kids. I don't want kids. I want to have fun and enjoy myself. That's what this thing with Alexa is. She's great to be around, and the sex is amazing."

Seth couldn't pretend to be surprised by what he was hearing. Actually, it had been a surprise when it had seemed like Dean was settling down with Renee. He had never seemed the husband and father type. If there was a small positive, at least he hadn't been caught cheating and hurt Renee even more. The poor girl definitely didn't deserve that. On the other hand, Seth felt some contempt towards Alexa, not considering the double standard in his thinking. She had known Dean was in a relationship, yet had been willing to sleep with him anyway, that was that was going through Seth's mind. "Did you instigate it, or did Alexa come on to you?" he asked.

"It was me. Don't blame Alexa and start thinking you need to give her some kind of lecture. Sure, she knew I was with Renee, but I was the one who made the first move and took her up to my room one night. I don't expect you to like what's happened, Seth. I know you get on well with Renee, but I'm asking you not to give me any shit over it. It's my life, and they're my decisions to make, you know?"

"I'm not going to give you shit," Seth said, knowing that doing so wouldn't help anything, not with Dean. "I've done some stupid things in the past and you've been there for me. Personally, I think you're mad to walk away from what you had with Renee, but that's just my opinion. If you're happy with... whatever this is with Alexa, then I've got your back. But you need to be careful about how you handle it if, or should I say when, the news gets out. Renee is friends with a lot of people around here. You and Alexa are going to be public enemies one and two if people even suspect you might have been cheating."

"Already thought about that," Dean said, sitting back down. "I talked it over with Alexa, too. We're going to keep it quiet for a while, then make like we've just started seeing each other. Even then, I expect we'll take some crap from some people. Fuck 'em, that's what I say."

"Fair enough," Seth said with a grimace. It wasn't the attitude he would have taken, but then, they were very different people. "So, is this going to lead to anything with Alexa, or is it just sex?"

"It's not _just_ sex. It's not like I've told her I'm not interested in anything more. But right now, we're enjoying ourselves. It's fun, and it's simple."

"Alright, well, your secret is safe with me," Seth promised.

Dean nodded an acknowledgement. "Appreciate it."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the women's locker room, Alexa was sticking to Dean's strong suggestion that they should keep the fact that they were seeing each other on the down low. As frustrating as it was, she could see that his reasoning made sense. The last thing she wanted was to become a pariah in the locker room, with everyone thinking she was home wrecker. That wasn't really how it had happened at all, but people probably wouldn't even be interested in listening to explanations if they got the idea into their heads that she was the one at fault. Yes, it was better to steer clear of the problem by waiting a while and making like she and Dean were just starting to see each other at that point.

"Are those ears painted on?" Lucy Thorne asked, making Alexa realise she had been spoken to without realising it. That was where worrying about things got you.

"Sorry, I was miles away," Alexa said, now paying total attention to the woman beside her, who was packing her ring gear into her case. "What did you say?"

Lucy gave her an impatient look, not a rarity by any means. "I said I enjoyed our first night as a team, if that's what we are. According to Bay, so did the fans. Maybe Hunter was really onto something. And if there's any truth in the rumours we keep hearing about them uniting the women's rosters and making tag team titles, who knows, we might end up as champions."

That was looking a long way ahead and making a lot of assumptions, but nonetheless, Alexa liked the image it conjured up in her head: Lucy with one title belt, and Alexa up on her shoulders holding the other in her unique pose. "I'm picturing that now," she said with a grin. "I think that would be awesome. Blissful Thorne. That would be quite a team."

"Twisted Thorne would be better," Bayley said from the other side of Lucy, having heard what they were discussing. "But hopefully Baymella would get back together, then you'd have to beat us!"

"Twisted Thorne," Lucy said, pondering the idea. "You know, I like that. If Hunter ever does go down the road of making us a proper team, I think we should pitch that name," she suggested to Alexa.

"Twisted Thorne it is," Alexa said happily, glad that she was finding some common ground with her new partner of sorts. That had been far from a certainty at the start of the night.

"But first, we've got the Royal Rumble," Bayley said. "I can't tell you how excited I am for the first ever women's rumble. It's going to be the best thing ever!"

"Hmm. I wonder how they're going to play that with our new angle?" Lucy said.

"If I was writing it, I'd have my character tell yours to enter and win it, thereby protecting my title," Alexa said.

Lucy nodded. "I guess that would make sense. But I obviously wouldn't win it, because then I'd have to face you at Wrestlemania and that would be the angle out of the window."

"I love fantasy booking," Bayley said excitedly. "I could spend the rest of the night just talking over ideas for this new team of yours."

"Me too!" Alexa exclaimed. "Fantasy booking is so much fun."

Finished packing her case, Lucy sighed and shook her head before walking towards the door. "Fucking nerds, the pair of you. I'll see you tomorrow."

Bayley giggled, knowing Lucy well enough to realise that she wasn't serious about the insult.

"I was kind of nervous about working with her," Alexa admitted once the coast was clear. "I didn't know how she'd react to it. She seems to be into it, though."

"You should relax. She likes you," Bayley said with a reassuring smile.

"Really? How do you know that?"

Bayley raised her eyebrows. "If she didn't, you wouldn't be standing there wondering about it."

 


	5. Chapter 5

"Beautiful," Dean croaked, realising that his throat was as deprived of water as his liver, hence the bastard of a hangover that promised to trouble him the entire morning. The previous night, he and Alexa had gone out to a club until God only knew what time in the morning. They had ended the night in her hotel room, where there had been drunken sex. Dean could remember all of that, which was something of a surprise.

A bigger surprise was how incredible Alexa looked despite the heavy night they'd had. The alcohol barely seemed to have had a lasting effect on her. Dean knew that he wouldn't have been able to say the same if he had looked in a mirror. His head felt like two people had been playing soccer in it. But Alexa looked great. She had just walked out of the bathroom, wearing only her pink underwear, the colour matching that on the ends of her hair.

"You're awake," she smiled, walking over to the bed. She leaned down and gave him a peck on the lips. "Last night was a lot of fun."

"I'm suffering for it now," Dean groaned, propping himself up on one arm. "Could you get me some water?"

"Lightweight," Alexa teased. She picked up one of the glasses that had been set out by the housekeeping staff and walked into the bathroom with it. Dean heard the water run briefly.

"There you go," she said when she returned with the much needed drink.

"Thanks." Dean took the glass and downed its contents in one hit. It was cold and refreshing, but it would take more than that to shift the hangover.

"I'm guessing you don't want me to open the curtains?" Alexa asked.

"No way," Dean groaned, imagining what the bright light would do to him. "Why don't you get back into bed?"

Alexa walked around the bed and did as he asked. After she had gotten back under the cover, she cuddled up to him and kissed the side of his neck affectionately.

"Mmmm," Dean moaned, enjoying the feeling of her lips on his skin.

Alexa lay down, an arm wrapped around him. After a long, contented silence, she said, "Dean?"

"What?"

"Turn around and face me."

Dean did as she asked, not doing his headache any favours in the process.

"I really enjoy being with you," Alexa said earnestly. "I know you don't want to go public, and I understand why. This might not be the best time to bring it up, but I want us to at least be serious with each other. The sex is great, but I don't want just sex."

"You want us to be a, uh…" Dean faltered. Talking about this kind of thing wasn't his strong point.

"I want us to be exclusive," Alexa said. "I want to know I'm in a relationship; something more serious than casual sex that could stop at any moment. I need to know that you want that, too."

Dean had known this was coming. Women were only happy to simply have fun for so long, especially when they started falling in love. They definitely hadn't come close to saying that particular word to each other, but he knew Alexa was falling for him. It was decision time. He had to either say no and end it right there and then, or say yes and agree to stick around and see what might become of this thing.

He did have feelings that ran deeper than wanting great six with a seriously hot chick, he had to admit to himself. Alexa was so much fun to be around; just the kind of person that was perfect for him. That was how Renee had been until she'd started getting all broody and obsessed with the idea of settling down. That was what had sent him running for the hills. But that wasn't what Alexa was asking for. All she wanted for now was for him to make some kind of commitment to her. Yes, he could do that, he decided.

"I do want that," he said. "Nights like last night are a lot of fun, but at times like just now, when you walked out of the bathroom? I look at you and think that I want that beautiful girl to be mine."

Alexa felt her heart melting at that. "So you can be a real romantic, Dean Ambrose."

"When I have to be," he said with a hint of a grin. "Helps when I'm not dying."

"Aww, your head is really bad?" Alexa asked sympathetically. She kissed his forehead, keeping her lips pressed down hard. To Dean's surprise, it actually helped, until she pulled away. "I'm guessing you're skipping breakfast with Seth, Lucy and Roman?" she asked next.

"Fucking hell," Dean groaned. "I forgot all about that. Yeah, I'm not going now. I'll just tell them I had a hangover. It's not exactly the first time."

"Now that I can believe," Alexa said with one of those stunning smiles. "Since we're staying here, maybe I can make you feel better?"

"Maybe. How?" Dean asked, feeling himself getting turned on despite the state he was in.

"Trust Little Miss Bliss," Alexa purred. "Sex is known to be a good hangover cure."

* * *

Dean arrived at the arena that afternoon alone, since he obviously couldn't arrive with Alexa, even though she was now his girlfriend. Commitment or not, it still wasn't the right time to go public. Barely had the thought left his mind when he got a big surprise.

"Hey, Dean. You and Alexa? Good for you, man. She's smoking hot."

The voice belonged to Jason Jordan. Dean turned to face him, stunned by what he had heard. At least there were no other wrestlers around. "What the fuck did you just say?" he demanded aggressively.

"Woah, chill," Jason said. "I didn't know you and Alexa was supposed to be a… secret," he finished, even though Dean was already marching away.

Dean was so angry that it felt like his head might explode. There was only one possible way the news of his relationship could be flying around backstage. Seth, of all the people, had broken his confidence.

When he reached The Shield's locker room, Dean slammed the door open and was on Seth before he could react. "You backstabbing piece of shit!" he shouted, pushing Seth hard in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards onto the bench behind him. "How could you go shooting your mouth off?"

"Woah! Woah!' Seth yelled, holding his hands up defensively as Roman grabbed hold of Dean and pulled him away before there could be any more physicality.

"Dean, calm the hell down!" Roman ordered sternly.

"He stabbed me in the back!" Dean raged, pointing at Seth. "I told him something in confidence and he want and told someone."

"Jesus, Dean. I didn't say anything," Seth protested.

"Bullshit! I just had Jordan come up to me out there, and he knew about me and Alexa!"

"Dean, calm down and shut up for a minute!" Roman insisted, shoving him over towards the door. "Seth didn't say anything. It didn't come from him."

Dean sensed that there might be more to this than he had thought, and he might have gone off on his friend a bit prematurely. Had Alexa told someone? Had the news spread that way? "What do you mean?" he asked a little less heatedly.

Seth got back to his feet. "I didn't say a word, man. We got here and everyone was talking about it. Someone saw the two of you all over each other in a club last night." It was obvious in his tone how hurt he was to have been accused of betrayal.

"Shit!" The bag Dean carried his ring gear in had fallen to the floor when he'd crashed into the room. Now he kicked it across the floor in frustration. The secret he had wanted to keep was secret no more. Of all the things to happen, someone else on the roster had gone to the same club as he and Alexa and had seen them dancing and kissing. Well, shit, he thought. And he had accused Seth of stabbing him in the back. "I'm sorry, Seth," he said after taking a deep breath.

I wouldn't do that kind of thing to you," Seth insisted again.

"I know," Dean said, wondering how he could have doubted it. "I really am sorry, okay?"

Seth composed himself for a moment, then slapped Dean on the shoulder. "Okay. I guess I can see the way it looked to you. You should know that everyone is talking about you two, so you'd better think about how you're going to play it."

"I wouldn't mind knowing when you were going to tell me about it," Roman said. He was less than impressed that Seth had been given the news, yet he had not.

"Soon. I was going to tell you soon," Dean assured him. "I didn't plan on telling Seth the other day, it just happened. If I had planned it, I'd have told you both together."

Roman nodded, believing what he had heard. "Alright. If you want my advice, I'd tell people that last night was the first time you went out with Alexa, and you just got unlucky that someone saw you."

"Yeah, that's probably the best idea," Dean agreed. "I just hope she's smart enough to think of that for herself, because you the women will be all over her in their locker room."

* * *

"How long has it been going on?"

"Did you go back to his room?"

"Are you sleeping with him?"

"Is this why he broke up with Renee?"

The questions were coming from all angles, faster than Alexa could take them all in. "Everyone, shut up!" she said loudly, her frustration more than apparent. "I only just walked in the room!"

"We need to know details!" Bayley said, as excitable as ever.

Put on the spot, Alexa had to think fast. All they seemed to know was that she had been in a club with Dean, dancing with him and kissing him. Someone must have seen them, and from there it wouldn't have taken long for the news to get around the locker room. It never did in WWE. If they only knew about one night, she would only tell them about one night. She had to hope Dean would play it the same way.

"Come on, spill," Emma encouraged.

"Look, Dean asked me if I wanted to go to a club with him last night," Alexa began, building the lie as she went. "I said yes, we went there, we had a great time. I kissed him. After that, we had a few drinks, danced and kissed some more, which is when someone obviously saw us, then we went back to the hotel."

"Did he come to your room?" Alicia Fox asked.

"Yes, he came to my room, but not into it," Alexa said carefully. "We said goodbye at the door. Now, you've gotten all the gossip about my night last night, so can we change the subject?"

"Not yet," Mickie James said, teasing. "We need to know if you're going to see him again."

The last person Alexa would have expected to come to her aid was Lucy Thorne, but that was what happened. Her new partner stepped forward and said, "That's enough, all of you. Shut your mouths and leave her alone."

No one seemed to like the idea of arguing with the woman who was becoming something of a leader in the women's locker room of late. They split away into their own little groups, to have their hushed conversations, along with thinly disguised looks at Alexa, who was left with Lucy to talk to. "Thanks for that," she said. "Honestly, I wouldn't have expected you to do that." She made it sound like a question.

Lucy shrugged. "Yeah, well, I've been the one everyone talks about behind their back. It's not very nice. And that grilling they were just giving you was even worse."

Alexa chuckled at the thought that had just popped into her head. "One minute you're protecting me in the ring, the next minute back here. Maybe I should have hidden behind you?"

"Maybe," Lucy said with a grin. "Hey, we are partners now. I wonder who it was who saw you?"

The first of those sentences pleased Alexa a lot. The second, however, was troubling. "Good question. I honestly have no idea who it was."


	6. Chapter 6

Dean had sent a text to Alexa and arranged to meet up with her in catering. Pleasingly, she had mentioned in her reply that she had told the women in the locker room that the night at the club had been their first together, exactly the story he had wanted to go with himself. Since their secret was out now, there was no longer a reason to be covert about spending time together at the arena. But before then, he wanted to at least speak to Renee. The last thing either he or Alexa needed was Renee stirring up her friends on the roster with accusations of cheating, even though those accusations would be right on the mark.

Finding Renee wasn't hard. She was waiting her turn for one of the makeup ladies to fix her up, ready for some interviews that needed to be filmed for WWE Network.

"Renee, you got a minute?" Dean asked as he approached.

Renee glared at him, but followed him as he stepped away from the other women so that they might be able to talk with some privacy.

"Look, about the shit that's flying around back here tonight," Dean began before Renee could say anything. "I don't know who's been shooting their mouth off, but I'm going to find out. I wouldn't have wanted you to find out that way that I went out with someone else. I know how it must look, but…"

"Shut up, Dean," Renee said with clear distaste. "You don't know who saw you in that club? I'll tell you. It was me. I saw you with Alexa, with your tongue down her throat. And you apparently think I was born yesterday, but I wasn't. You think you're going to fool me with some crap about that being the first time you and Alexa went out together? I'm not stupid, you bastard. It was so obvious that the two of you were not on a first date, or anything close to it. So the only thing I'm wondering is, were you with her before you broke up with me, or did you break up with me because you had your eyes set on her?"

Dean attempted to speak, but Renee was not going to let that happen. "Oh, don't worry, I don't expect you to tell the truth. You already came here and tried to lie to me, so save your breath. I think you were with Alexa before we broke up. I think you cheated on me, and that's why I made sure to let everyone know what I saw in that club. If you want to be a piece of trash, you can enjoy everyone knowing you're a piece of trash, and knowing about that slut you're with."

"Now wait a minute," Dean said in an attempt to defend Alexa's honour, as if that was going to work.

"No, I'm not waiting a minute. Get out of my sight!" Renee shouted at him before turning and marching back over to the makeup ladies, who were all now giving Dean evil looks.

"Great," Dean muttered to himself as he walked away in the direction of catering, knowing now that he was going to have to break the news to Alexa that Renee had made correct assumptions about the reason for the break up. He didn't imagine many of the guys would give him shit over it, and even if they did, he didn't really care; he had only ever gotten close to Seth and Roman anyway. What bothered him was whether or not the women would turn on Alexa, because he doubted she would be able to handle that kind of thing as well as him.

"Oh, just so you know," Renee called after him. "I'm moving on as well, with a real man."

Although he managed not to react visibly, Dean felt angered by that news, despite having no moral right to do so. Even though he had ended it with Renee, he felt like he didn't want to see anyone else with her. "Just fucking leave it," he mumbled, trying to convince himself not to turn around and go back. It was more important to go find Alexa than to give Renee the satisfaction of demanding who her new man was.

A few minutes later, Dean approached Alexa's table in the catering area, carrying a cup of coffee for each of them.

"I can't believe this," Alexa said as she took the cup he offered to her. "What are the odds of someone seeing us in that stupid club? And then of course whoever it was had to tell everyone here as soon as they could. Honestly, I hate the way people gossip around here sometimes."

"It was Renee who saw us," Dean revealed with a grimace. "I just saw her on my way here. She was more than happy to tell me that she was the one who spread the news around. She accused me of cheating on her, too. I tried to tell her the night she saw us was the first time we went out together, but she didn't buy it. She said she's already told everyone I cheated on her with you."

Alexa buried her face in her hands for a moment. "For God's sake," she groaned. "How could this have gone so badly? It's literally the worst case scenario for all of this to break down. Everyone's going to think I'm a home wrecker or a slut. No wonder most of the girls were whispering to each other and looking at me out of the corners of their eyes, even after I gave them my side of the story."

"It was that bad?" Dean asked sympathetically, feeling about ready to put his fist through the table in frustration.

"Yes, it really was that bad." Alexa shook her head, then sighed. "Can't say we don't deserve it though, can we? I mean, Renee is right to be hurt that we were seeing each other behind her back. It's not like she's falsely accusing us of it."

That was true, Dean had to admit. As bad as the situation was, it was ultimately of their own making. They certainly had no claim to the moral high ground. "So what are we going to do?" he asked, taking a drink from his cup as he tried to calm down.

Alexa considered that for a moment. As if Renee spreading the truth wasn't bad enough, she had lied to her colleagues and said that she had only been with Dean on that one night. Now that she was committed, they had to keep going with that story, even though it wasn't true. "We're going to have to stick to the story. I already told everyone it was the first time we went out, so if I change the story now, I'm a liar as well as everything else they might call me. We've made such a mess here, Dean."

"Yeah, we have. At least there's one thing I do know about this place; there's always new shit for people to gossip about. Just ride it out and it'll pass."

It was hardly the most reassuring advice, but Alexa knew there wasn't much else he could have said, apart from empty platitudes, which she wasn't interested in hearing. "I hope you're right," she said miserably. "There was only one person who spoke up and got the others to leave me alone."

"Oh yeah, who?"

"Would you believe it was Lucy?" Alexa asked, still surprised by the fact herself.

"Yeah, I'd believe that. Lucy and I had our differences at the start, damn we had our differences, but once you get to know her, she's not the person you see around here a lot of the time."

"You mean she's not always grumpy and aggressive?"

"No, she's not," Dean said. "You might need a friend for a while, and you could do a lot worse than Lucy."

"Plus she's my partner," Alexa said thoughtfully, looking down at the cup of coffee that she hadn't touched yet.

"Exactly. Give her a chance, that's my advice. Beside anything else, she'll stop the others giving you shit, to your face at least."

Despite the crappy situation, Alexa managed a grin. "It's almost like she's protecting me on-screen and for real."

Dean smiled, allowing silence to descend on them. A subject change was for the best, but he couldn't just go straight into it without seeming unconcerned about how she was feeling.

Alexa nursed her coffee for a while, then said, "I'll be glad when tonight is over and we can go back to the hotel."

"Right," Dean said. "There's no need for sneaking around now, at least. You can come to my room, I'll order food and something to drink, and we can celebrate our first night as a real couple. Look forward to that."

Alexa eyes twinkled. "Oh, I will," she promised.

* * *

Later that night, Alexa and Lucy received a summons to Hunter Helmsley's office. Alexa was glad to get out of the women's locker room, since it wasn't the most welcoming place. After the initial excitement when she had arrived earlier in the day, it seemed that the women had reached the conclusion that Renee's version either might be, or was, the truth. Only Lucy and Bayley had been willing to engage her in conversation.

"This night really sucks," Alexa said as she and her new ally walked along a hallway beside each other.

"You mean that lot in there?" Lucy asked, gesturing with a thumb back towards the locker room. "Fuck 'em," she added without waiting for a response. "I've been the one everyone bad mouths behind their back. In fact they did it to my face a time or two."

"I wouldn't do that," Alexa said sincerely. Of all the people in the locker room, Lucy was the last person she would want to pick a fight with. "You punched Sasha in the face that time."

"Yep. She called me a racist, so I smacked her one. I had to apologise, but I'd do the same thing if I had to live that moment over again. That's the easiest way to show people not to fuck with you."

"What, punching them?" Alexa asked skeptically.

Lucy chuckled. "I didn't mean it that literally. I meant show them you're not to be fucked with."

"But that doesn't make you popular," Alexa said carefully, not wanting to get snapped at.

Lucy didn't snap. She looked down at Alexa and spoke with real conviction. "It's not being popular that matters, it's that they respect you. Do you think it's an accident that they're starting to look to me as the locker room leader? Most of those girls probably wouldn't say they like me if you were to ask them in private, but they all respect me."

Being suspected of cheating with another woman's boyfriend was not exactly the best way to start winning more respect in the locker room, but Alexa appreciated Lucy's input. Being strong and not willing to take shit from the others might be a good mindset to get into for the next few days, maybe even weeks. "Thanks, Lucy," she said warmly.

"No problem. We're partners now. Well, almost," Lucy said as they reached Hunter's office.

"You think they're going to make us a proper team?" Alexa asked hopefully. The more she had thought about the potential and possibilities that pairing them together might present, the more she had found herself hoping the creative team didn't screw it all up.

"Absolutely," Lucy said with a rare smile. "Twisted Thorne, right?" She held out her fist in traditional Shield style.

"Twisted Thorne," Alexa repeated, bumping fists. Hers looked tiny compared to Lucy's, she noticed.

Lucy got ready to knock on the door. "Now we just have to sell the name, and maybe the idea, to Hunter."


	7. Chapter 7

When she followed Lucy into the office, Alexa saw that Hunter wasn't the only one waiting to see them. Stephanie was also in the room, standing there talking to her husband. Since she was Lucy's friend and the one who had been responsible for signing her to WWE in the first place, Stephanie's presence could only be a good thing when it came to pitching ideas. Alexa quickly decided to let her partner do most of the talking.

Greetings were exchanged all round, particularly warmly in the case of Lucy and Stephanie. With the pleasantries out of the way, Hunter got down to business. "The reason I asked you to come and see me is that I wanted to let you know how well your new angle has been received. As you know, we have people who analyse these things, taking in the reactions we get to our social media and things like that. The two of you were among the hottest topics last Monday night, and during the day on Tuesday before Smackdown went on air. That tells me that we're onto something, putting the two of you together."

"I agree," Lucy said, showing rare enthusiasm. "I know Alexa does, too. We both think there is a lot of potential in our team, if that's what you decide to make us."

"That's what we're thinking of doing," Stephanie said, clearly excited about the idea herself. It wasn't out of the ordinary; she had made sure Lucy had been pushed pretty hard throughout her career, which was the reason a large number of the fans insisted on booing her.

"It will take time though," Hunter said. "Keep in mind that we've started the angle with you reluctantly being hired by Alexa, Lucy. You can't just show up the next week and be her willing partner. We've got to work towards it, but I think that in itself will make a good angle. It's already been proven that the fans will get behind it if we do it right, so that's what we've got to look to do. I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page about putting you together for longer than we originally thought, so I'm glad to hear that you are."

"We even thought of a name," Lucy revealed.

"Oh?" Stephanie asked.

"Twisted Thorne. We both think that's really good," Lucy said.

Hunter and Stephanie glanced at each other. Stephanie nodded her approval of the name. "Twisted Thorne," Hunter said thoughtfully. "That's good. It sounds like a name for a heel team, and that's what we'll start you off as. The only problem would be if we ever decided to turn you face. I'm not saying we will, but if we did, Twisted Thorne then becomes not such a great name."

"What about Blissful Thorne?" Alexa asked, joining the conversation for the first time. "They were the two names we talked about."

"Blissful Thorne. That's brilliant!" Stephanie said, turning to her husband. "Hunter, I love that name."

"I got that," Hunter said with a grin. "That's hypothetical at the moment, though. I don't know if we would ever want this to be a face team. Alexa, you play a heel so well, it would be hard to make the call on turning you."

"Well, thank you," Alexa said, appreciating the compliment for what it was.

"So the idea is what? I keep helping Alexa out and eventually come to like her?" Lucy asked.

"We'll go with that for the next few weeks, up to the Rumble," Hunter said. "We can use that event to transition you over to an actual team. Actually, we'll probably do it the next night. We've got bigger plans for the Rumble event."

"We've heard rumours of a women's rumble match," Lucy said, trying to pry more information out of him.

"You've heard right," Hunter said. "In fact, Kurt is going to announce that match tonight. There will be twenty entrants, so it's going to be quite the occasion. There will be a match tonight to decide who is going get the number twenty spot." He took in the excited looks on the faces of his two employees as he broke the news. It was moments like that which made his job so satisfying. Sadly, Alexa's delight was misplaced. As the champion, she wouldn't be involved. As he was thinking about it, the same thing seemed to dawn on her.

"I'm not going to be in it, am I?" Alexa asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Hunter said. "As you know, as the champion, you'll face the winner of the rumble match at Wrestlemania."

"But that gives us a problem," Stephanie thought aloud. "By then, Twisted Thorne will be a team. We'll be going into Wrestlemania with Alexa booked in a singles match, presumably at least. That will leave Lucy with nothing to do, unless we had her involved in something with The Shield instead. That's not really an option I like. I'd want to see Twisted Thorne in action."

"We could even be looking at a women's tag team division by then," Hunter added.

"It's true that you're going to unite the women's rosters?" Lucy asked, thinking that the news was getting better and better the more she heard.

"Right now, it's under consideration," Hunter said. "I'm in favour, but it's Vince's decision. If we do go that way, there's talk of introducing a tag team division, with titles. I'm sure you've heard those rumours, too. I know what this place is like."

Lucy shared a glance with Alexa. "We've heard them. I think it would be a great idea. Twisted Thorne going for the belts at 'Mania sounds great to me."

While the conversation had been progressing, Alexa had been deep in thought. An idea had come to mind, and she decided to put it forward. "We could have the rumble match be for the belt. I could drop it. That would free up Lucy and I to compete as a team. I think it could be a good angle for our transition into a team, too," she went on, now thinking aloud as she went. "I could say to Lucy before the rumble that her job is to make sure I win and keep the title, which obviously wouldn't end up happening. Maybe we would both get eliminated in quick succession, then we'd end up arguing outside the ring. I'd be angry of course, so I might slap her in the face."

"Which would make me mad," Lucy put in. "I'd chase you to the back. Then, the next night, everyone would wonder what was going to happen between us. There could be some situation where one of the other teams ends up in a two on one situation against you. Then I would come out, with everyone thinking I'm about to join in and kick your arse all over the building. But instead I help you and take out the other two, then we celebrate as a team afterwards."

Stephanie chuckled. "Thanks for inviting us to this creative meeting. But in all seriousness, I think you have some good ideas there. Hunter?"

"Yeah, definitely," Hunter said. It was a pleasant surprise indeed to see Lucy so interested in creative ideas. He couldn't remember a time when that had happened before. "I particularly like the expectation of Lucy to kick Alexa's ass, but instead they'll team up and be even stronger together than they were before. That's very good. I'll put all of this forward when we have a meeting later and see what Vince thinks of it all. I'll get back to you with a decision."

"Thanks, Hunter," Alexa said. She wondered if he would have been so receptive to her ideas if she hadn't been standing next to Lucy Thorne at the time. Having a partner who had some clout within the company definitely wasn't a bad thing at all.

"You're welcome," the boss said. "That's all for the future. Let's talk about what's going to happen on the show tonight, at least if the current plans stay in effect."

"Wait a minute," Lucy said. "There's something else I need to ask."

"Go on."

"What about The Shield? I'm up for teaming with Alexa, but I don't want to leave The Shield. I really love this gimmick, being on the same team as Seth, all the rest of it. I think this is the perfect look for me in the ring, too," Lucy said, spreading her arms wide to emphasise the point. Even though she wasn't wearing her body armour or gloves, she still looked very intimidating, perfect for The Shield.

"Oh, I agree," Stephanie said. "This look is perfect for you. I've loved it right from the start."

Alexa tried her best to show no reaction. Everyone knew Steph had a girl crush on Lucy, but she hadn't realised it was this bad.

"We won't be changing anything with The Shield," Hunter was saying. "We can still show you backstage with the guys sometimes, have you come out to manage them in a match from time to time, send you to appearances with them, that kind of thing. Actually, it gives us a bit of a break creatively because it's hard to come up with stuff for all four of you at times."

"As long as I don't have to leave the team or change my look, I'm happy," Lucy said with a satisfied smile.

"Good," Hunter said, making it the final point of that conversation. "Now, let's talk about tonight's show."

* * *

Charly Caruso appeared on the screen after Raw's opening match, ready to give an interview to someone. "Please welcome my guests at this time, Alexa Bliss, and Lucy Thorne."

The two women walked into the shot, both wearing their ring gear. Alexa had her title belt over her shoulder. She stood next to Charly, while Lucy took up a position behind the Raw Women's Champion, as if standing guard.

"Alexa, it appears that last week, you hired Lucy to protect you from the rest of the women on Raw, who all seem to be out for your blood. Is that accurate?"

"Is what accurate?" Alexa asked, showing absolutely no respect for the interviewer. "Is it accurate that I hired Lucy Thorne? I think that's perfectly obvious, don't you?" she asked, turning around to look at her bodyguard for a second. "Or do you mean is it accurate that the other women are out for my blood? Well, you might be right. They may well be out for my blood. If they are, they can come try and get it because as we saw last week, there are consequences for getting on my bad side."

"Yes indeed, we saw some of that last week," Charly said. She turned slightly to look at Lucy for the next question. "Lucy, you took out both Sasha Banks and Bayley last week, then you helped Alexa to win her match. Are you proud of your actions?"

"I've been hired to do a job," Lucy said simply. "Like I told Sasha and Bayley last week, anyone who puts their hands on Alexa outside of a sanctioned match with answer to me."

"But you got involved in a sanctioned match later in the night, and you ended up costing Nia Jax the win."

Alexa angrily snatched the microphone, taking control of the interview. "No one cost anyone the match!" she shouted. "I beat Nia Jax right in the middle of the ring. No one else laid a finger on her. Lucy was there at ringside to make sure no one else came and attacked me, that's all. And that's how it's going to go from now on. Come on, Lucy."

Alexa slammed the microphone into Charly's chest, then led the way out of the shot.

* * *

The match between Sasha Banks and Bayley to decide who would be the number twenty entrant in the women's Royal Rumble match had been going on for almost fifteen minutes, with the momentum frequently passing from one woman to the other.

Bayley had already escaped the Bank Statement twice and Sasha had kicked out of several very near falls before Banks got her signature double knee attack into the corner.

"That could be it!" Booker T called out as Sasha made the cover. For a moment, it appeared that he might be right. The referee reached the count of two, but then he mysteriously slid backwards out of the ring, the crowd booing loudly.

"Wait a minute! There's Alexa Bliss!" Cole protested. "What is she doing out here? Sasha Banks just had the match won, but Bliss pulled the referee out of the ring."

"Little Miss Bliss is the Raw Women's Champion, Cole," Graves said. "She go wherever she likes."

"Bliss getting in the ring now," Cole said, calling the action. "Sasha Banks is not happy at all with what just happened. She just had the number twenty spot in the first ever women's Royal Rumble match sewn up."

Sasha and Alexa got in each other's faces, exchanging heated words. After a moment, Alexa slapped Sasha in the face, causing the referee to immediately throw out the contest. Unsurprisingly, Sasha was not going to take that lying down.

"Banks teeing off with right hands to Bliss now," Cole called out. "Sasha just got a huge opportunity taken away from her, and she's not going to stand for it."

Taking repeated punches, Alexa staggered back into the corner. The referee was able to get in between the two women and separate them, but then Alexa shoved him aside and charged at Sasha, attempting to hit her with a clothesline.

Sasha saw what was coming and ducked the move, leaving herself in a perfect position behind Alexa.

"Bank Statement!" Booker called out. "Sasha Banks has the Bank Statement on Alexa Bliss, and she's tapping! The champion is tapping!"

The crowd had been cheering the fact that Alexa was being made to suffer, but then their tone changed completely as someone else headed to the ring.

"Uh oh, now you've done it, Sasha," Graves said. "Here comes Lucy Thorne!"

Sasha let go of the Bank Statement when she saw the new threat approaching. She had made it to her feet by the time Lucy slid under the bottom rope.

Lucy's first action was to deliver a slightly clumsy but very powerful attack that was something in between a clothesline and a punch in the face. Whatever it was, it hit Sasha flush on the jaw and dropped Banks like a sack of potatoes. Wasting no time, Lucy ruthlessly stomped on Sasha at least ten times before hauling her to her feet and sending her flying over the top rope.

Alexa was now back on her feet in the middle of the ring, looking gratefully at her hired protection. But Lucy wasn't done. She had her eyes set on the third woman in the ring.

In the opposite corner, Bayley was struggling to get back up. As she did so, Lucy marched in her direction, shoving Alexa out of the way in the process.

"Wait! No!" Cole yelled as Lucy scooped Bayley up on her shoulders. "Thorne in the Side! Bayley gets the Thorne in the Side for the second week in a row! What was that for?" The crowd were booing loudly now.

"Wrong place, wrong time, Cole," Graves said. "The women around here had better learn fast what happens if you're…"

He was interrupted by Kurt Angle's music, and a loud cheer from the fans. As soon as the GM walked out onto the stage, it was clear that he was not happy at all. He didn't even acknowledge the 'You suck' chants. "Alexa, you seem to think you're really clever," he began. "But I've got news for you. You're not actually clever at all. What you just did, interfering in that match and ensuring we don't have a number twenty entrant at the Royal Rumble, could cost you big time, because now, you're going to be number twenty."

"What's he talking about? I'm the Women's Champion," Alexa could be seen saying to Lucy, the two women standing beside each other in the ring.

"Yes, you are the champion, for now at least," Kurt agreed. "But for how much longer? Because now, the women's Royal Rumble match with be for the Raw Women's Championship!"

The crowd went wild at that announcement, as did Alexa, in the totally opposite way.

"Wow, what an announcement!" Booker exclaimed. "Alexa Bliss is livid, but she brought this on herself."

"But wait, there are Smackdown women in the rumble match," Graves protested. "What if one of them win our title? This is crazy! Kurt Angle has lost it!"

"Alexa Bliss is number twenty in the women's Royal Rumble, and her title is going to be on the line!" Cole said to end the segment.


	8. Chapter 8

Following Lucy back through the curtain, Alexa felt great. Her love for the Bliss/Thorne partnership was growing with every segment they performed together. As far as this night was concerned, it was the only thing she had enjoyed. Her sex life being the talk of the locker room and having everyone whispering behind her back was not fun at all.

"I caught Sasha in the face pretty hard when I hit the ring," Lucy said once they were in the Gorilla position. "How much do you want to bet she starts crying about it when she comes back here?"

"I thought the two of you got along better now?" Alexa asked.

"We do. But she still makes a point of it every time she gets hit by me in the ring, probably because she got shit for injuring me that time."

Alexa was tempted to say that she was staying out of that one, but then she realised that wouldn't have been a particularly good thing to say to her new partner, especially when Lucy had defended her in the locker room earlier in the night. Instead, she said, "You work stiff in the ring. So do other people. Charlotte and Nia both do. I've wrestled all three of you and I've had nothing to complain about. I don't see why she should have a particular problem with the way you wrestle."

To Alexa, Lucy seemed happy with the response. "I know. But I bet you she complains anyway. Here we go," she added when Sasha walked through the curtain, holding a hand to her mouth.

"Thanks for the fat lip," Sasha said when she walked over to her two colleagues, addressing the comment to Lucy. "You made like you were going to clothesline me, yet you pretty much punched me square in the face."

Point proven, Lucy glanced at Alexa for a half second before studying Sasha's lip. "It's swelling up alright. My bad. You came at me a bit quick, so I just had to swing for you."

"And you hurled me clean over the top rope, and I landed on me knee on the floor. It's lucky I didn't twist it or something."

Lucy had to admit she had thrown Sasha a bit harder than she had wanted to. It wasn't hard, when Banks hardly weighed anything. Tempting though it was, she decided against advising putting more muscle on. "Look, it was supposed to look like I came out and messed you and Bayley up. If it got a bit too rough for you, then like I said, my bad."

"It's not a matter of being too rough for me, it's about being careful not to hurt people," Sasha said, an edge coming into her voice.

Lucy felt her patience deserting her quickly, but she was looked at as the leader of the locker room now. Losing her cool was something she had to avoid whenever possible. "Let's not go back down that road, huh? We've fought over this before, and neither of us came out of it particularly well." Especially that time I punched you in the face and nearly knocked you out, she didn't have to add.

"Just be more careful," Sasha said, walking away, probably feeling like she had gotten the upper hand. Her opinion might have changed if she had seen the face Lucy made to Alexa.

"I think you handled that quite well," Alexa said once the coast was clear. "Honestly, complaining like that over a fat lip." She was laying it on a bit thick, but again, Lucy seemed to like what she was hearing.

"Come on, back to the locker room," she said, leading the way. Alexa fell in step beside her. Just then, Bayley came back through the curtain and hurried to catch up to them so that they could all walk back together.

"Alexa," Bayley said hesitantly. "I want to say I'm sorry for joining in with all those questions earlier. Whatever's going on with you and Dean is none of my business."

"Thanks, Bay," Alexa said with a tired smile. "Do you think you could talk the others into seeing it that way?"

Lucy grunted. "Some chance of that. You're going to be the hot topic for a while, even with me standing up for you."

"Yeah, about that," Alexa said quickly. "I want to thank you again for doing that. You didn't have to."

Looking down at her, Lucy appeared to consider her response for a moment. A smile broke out on her face; a real surprise for Alexa. "Sure I did. We're partners."

Bayley couldn't hold in an excited squeaking sound, clearly delighted at the bond that was forming. The look on her face echoed own Alexa's thoughts very accurately indeed.

* * *

Getting back to her hotel room was a huge relief for Alexa. Leaving her case by the door, she walked over to the bed and threw herself onto it. "I'm so glad that's over," she said with a heavy sigh.

Dean kicked the door shut and brought both of their cases further into the room. "At least that will be the worst of it. They'll find something else to gossip about soon enough."

"Yeah, but they won't be gossiping about it with me," Alexa said, sounding very depressed. "I have a feeling I lost a few friends today, thanks to Renee shooting her mouth off to everyone."

"Then they weren't your friends to start with," Dean pointed out as he sat down next to her on the bed. "You don't need those kind of 'friends' in your life. Fair enough if they want to sympathise with Renee, but they shouldn't be taking sides. That's just lame."

"Whether they should be taking sides or not, they are," Alexa said. She rolled over onto her back so that she could look up at her man. "Lucy seems to be the only friend I've got right now, and she wasn't even my friend until a week ago. I used to be pretty intimidated by her to be honest, but at least she's looking out for me now. The others didn't say a word to me when she was in the room. Actually, that's not true. Bay apologised for gossiping, then she kind of stayed out of the way until we left. You know she hates conflict."

Dean grunted a laugh. "Yeah, that's Bayley alright. As for Lucy, it's kind of funny how she's ended up being looked at as the leader of your locker room. I guess that's where having a strong character gets you."

"You're right. She said to me earlier something like, 'It's not whether they like you that matters, it's whether they respect you.' I'm not sure I'd be happy looking at it that way, but then that's probably why people look to her as the leader, not me. Either way, I'm just glad she's on my side."

Lying down beside her, Dean brushed a few stray strands of hair away from her face, then kissed her on the lips. "You know what I think?"

"What?" Alexa asked quietly, gazing into his eyes.

"I think we should stop talking about work." The way she looked at him with something close to adoration made Dean a very happy man. They had not been together all that long, but he could tell that his Little Miss Bliss was already in love with him. Moving on from Renee after so long had not been an easy decision by any means, but he did not doubt that he had made the right call.

"Okay," Alexa said softly. "You promised me you'd take my mind off it all tonight."

"And I will. I'm going to call room service and order champagne. While I'm doing that, you're going to put something sexy on for me, then we're going to put any thoughts of work right out of our minds. How does that sound?"

Alexa pretended to sulk. "Champagne is supposed to be for celebrating. We're not celebrating anything."

"Sure we are."

"What are we celebrating?"

Dean grinned. "We're celebrating the fact that we don't have to sneak around anymore. We might not be popular, but who cares? We can start getting a room together in hotels now; we can walk into arenas together; we can do whatever the hell we want. I'd call that something worth raising a glass to."

Giving up her sulky act, Alexa gave him one of her best smiles. "Okay, deal. You can order us some bubbly. While you do, I'll put on some sexy underwear."

"I hope it's pink," Dean said, trying to sound a lot more casual than he felt in that moment.

"You like the pink, huh?" Alexa asked, teasing him with her tone.

"Yeah. It matches your hair. It's sexy as hell."

"Well, I don't think I have anything pink in my case at the moment. If you want to see pink underwear, you're going to have to buy me some."

Dean looked at her as though she was from another planet. "Me, buy women's underwear?"

"Yes, you, Dean. You mean you never bought underwear for Renee?"

"No. I would give her money to get some for herself, but I never actually bought any. Women's underwear stores aren't exactly my thing."

Alexa raised her eyebrows. "They're going to have to start being your thing. If you want to see me in something you like, that is. A girl needs to be taken care of at times."

The image of himself browsing through women's underwear was just about the most ridiculous thing Dean had ever had go through his head. But now that he had been backed into a corner, he felt like he had to make some kind of effort. "I'll see what I can do," he said grumpily.

"Your face," Alexa said, giggling. "You don't really have to buy me underwear, Dean."

"No, I'll buy some," he insisted, unsure why he was doing so. "But when I do, you've got to wear it, no matter what it is."

"Deal," Alexa said excitedly. "You buy it, I'll wear it for you."

"Good girl," Dean said, now happy that he had done well out of the exchange. He leaned down and kissed her, making sure to bite her lip a little in the process to let her know who was the boss. She liked that. "Now go get changed while I get on to room service."

"Okay baby," Alexa purred, looking at him with a sultry expression on her face as she got up off the bed. She looked through her case for something her man might like then disappeared into the bathroom. Meanwhile, Dean walked around the bed to the phone and made his call to room service.

A few minutes later, the bathroom door opened. Alexa walked out wearing only black lace underwear. The sight had Dean's body on fire the moment her saw it. If only she had a black pointed hat, she would have been his own, incredibly sexy version of the wicked witch of WWE. "Now that is what I call stunning," he said, walking over to her.

"You mean it?" Alexa asked sweetly, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.

Dean knew she was playing him perfectly, but he didn't care one single bit. "Oh yeah," he assured her. Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her off her feet and carried her over towards the bed. In turn, she wrapped her legs around him and began to kiss him.

"Dean?" she breathed when she was placed down on the bed.

"What?" he grunted, nibbling at the side of her neck.

"This will be the first time, you know, since we really became a couple. Make it special."

"Oh, I will," he said gruffly.

And he did, multiple times over the course of the next few hours.


	9. Chapter 9

It took Dean a couple of days to find the courage to pull Lucy aside and ask a favour of her. The subject at hand was not a comfortable one for him to bring up at all, but he felt like he needed some help. And Lucy was the only one he could think of to provide that help. He most certainly wasn't going to ask Seth or Roman, knowing that he would never live it down if he did. As the four Shield members walked back through the curtain after a house show match, he finally decided to go for it.

"Lucy, have you got a minute?" he asked, stepping to the side of the hallway.

Lucy joined him, a slightly confused expression on her face, as Roman and Seth continued towards the locker rooms, Seth looking back to see what was going on. "What's up?" she asked.

"I need to ask a favour, and I need you not to say anything to Roman or Seth about it."

Narrowing her eyes, Lucy said, "I don't make a habit of keeping things from Seth. What's this about?"

Dean was sure that he looked as awkward as he felt. "Alexa wants me to go and buy some underwear for her."

"Oh!" Lucy exclaimed, a smile spreading across her face now that she knew it wasn't something serious that she was being asked to keep secret. "Just go to a lingerie store and pick something you think she'd like. I don't get what the problem is?"

"I wouldn't even know where to start," Dean said with a sigh. "I'm not the kind of guy who goes to lingerie stores, Lucy. I wouldn't have a clue even what size she is."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "There are still cavemen like you out there? What are you asking me? You want me to come to the store with you, is that it?"

"Would you?" Dean asked hopefully. For a moment, it looked like she was going to say no, but then she seemed to have a change of heart.

"Alright," she agreed reluctantly. "I'll go to a lingerie store with you, Dean, if that's what you really want."

"And you'll keep it quiet from the guys? I'd never live it down."

"Yes, I'll keep it quiet," Lucy promised with a smile. "But you'll owe me one."

"I'll owe you one," Dean nodded, considering the price more than worth it.

"So, how did this come about?" Lucy asked, enjoying seeing Dean on the back foot for once.

"Basically, I said I liked the underwear she had on. It ended up with her saying if I bought her something, she would promise to wear it for me. I could hardly back down from that kind of thing, so I said I'd get something. Now here we are."

The conversation was getting more and more entertaining for Lucy. "What kind of thing are you thinking of getting? Something classy? Maybe something kinky?"

"Can we not talk about this?" Dean asked, blushing.

"Dean Ambrose, are you blushing?" Lucy asked incredulously, giggling at him.

That was enough for Dean. Although he wanted the help, being ridiculed was too much. "You know what, forget I said anything," he blustered, marching off in the direction of the locker rooms.

"Dean, wait," Lucy said, quickly catching up to him. "I'm just teasing you. You can't blame me, after how many times you've done the same to me. I'll come with you tomorrow, and we'll find something nice, okay?"

Dean studied her for a second. Then, deciding that she meant what she had said, he gave her a thankful smile. "I appreciate it."

"No problem. It'll be fun," Lucy said, suppressing a grin as best she could.

* * *

"Is this the first time you and I have done anything together, just the two of us?" Lucy asked Dean. They were walking through a shopping mall, on their way to a big name lingerie store that she had located with a search on her phone earlier that morning.

"Apart from meet and greet appearances, yeah, probably." Dean had no problem with the idea of spending time with his on-screen teammate, who also happened to be his best friend's girl; it was just that they had never actually done it. So far on their little shopping trip, he had been educated as to what sizes he should be looking to purchase for Alexa. How exactly Lucy felt so confident in what she had told him was a mystery; he was just happy to have the knowledge provided for him.

"It's a shame we've not got much time before we need to get on the road," Lucy was saying. "You could have taken me out for lunch somewhere afterwards."

"I'm sure you'd rather have me owe you a favour anyway."

"Yeah, it'll come in useful one say," Lucy agreed. "Now, have you put any more thought into what you're going to buy for Alexa?"

Dean shrugged. "I haven't got a clue. All I know is I want it to look hot. Oh, and it's got to be pink. Definitely pink."

"Pink, okay," Lucy said, trying her best to take it all seriously. She still found it lame that he hadn't simply gone to the store himself, but when all was said and done, she had agreed to help when he had asked, so that was what she should try to do.

"It matches her hair," Dean added, feeling some kind of strange compulsion to explain himself.

"Here's the place up ahead," Lucy said, pointing to the tasteful sign outside the store they were going to visit. She was glad of the chance to avoid Dean's last comment. Knowing the exact reasons one of her friends wanted to buy certain underwear for another of her friends was not essential information.

"So, do we, uh, just walk in?" Dean asked hesitantly.

Lucy could not help bursting out laughing. "It's a fucking store, Dean. What else are we going to? We're going to go in, and we're going to look around. That's what you do in stores."

"Kill me now," Dean mumbled, picturing himself surrounded by women, all looking at him like he was an alien invader from another planet.

"Stop being such a big baby," Lucy teased. "There will be plenty of other guys in here."

"Really?" Dean asked, genuinely surprised.

Lucy rolled her eyes, as she had the day before. "Yes, Dean. Men go and buy sexy clothes for their ladies all the time."

"They do? Wait, Seth goes into places like this?"

"Of course. Or he orders stuff online."

Mind blown, Dean walked on in silence, coming closer to the dreaded lingerie store second by second. The experience made him think about those TV shows where people faced their fears, by holding an enormous spider if they had arachnophobia, for example.

Glancing at him, Lucy realised how genuinely nervous he was. As silly as that seemed to her, she decided to stop teasing him and actually offer encouragement. He was lucky he had sworn her to secrecy before they got this far, that was for sure. Actually, it would probably have been hard to get people to believe Dean Ambrose, of all people, was flapping about something like this. "There's really nothing to be uncomfortable about," she said, more reassuringly. "Once this first time is over, you'll be in and out of these places all the time."

Dean seriously doubted that, but he appreciated the sentiment. "Alexa did say she would wear whatever I bought," he said, managing one of his customary cheeky grins.

"Yeah, you said. You ought to be thinking about maxing out your credit card! Alexa's, like, fully hot. You should make the most of an offer like that."

There was no chance for Dean to voice his surprise that Lucy found Alexa hot, or to ask if that was a common thing for women to say about each other, because they reached the lingerie store and Lucy walked right in, leaving him optionless but to follow.

The first impression Dean got when he walked into the store was that he had no chance of finding something he wanted. There were so many items on show, and he had no intention of walking around casually browsing over them all.

"Good morning, sir," a stunning blonde assistant who was standing near the door greeted him. "Can I help you find anything?"

"We're good, thank you," Lucy said, reappearing at his side. She took Dean by the arm and led him away.

Looking around, Dean saw that she had been telling the truth. There actually were guys shopping alone, for their wives or mistresses.

"Have a wander around, see what you like," Lucy encouraged. "I can tag along with you, or I can make myself scarce, whatever you want. I figure you've done the hard part, now that you're in here."

That was the first time Dean actually considered the fact that Lucy might see what he bought for Alexa; another uncomfortable prospect. Maybe browsing wouldn't be so bad after all. "Thanks, uh, I'll look around and catch up with you when I'm done."

"Alright. I'm going to have a look around for myself. Come find me if you need to."

"Thanks, Lucy," Dean said, meaning it.

Lucy nodded an acknowledgment then walked off to do her own thing. Left to it, Dean wandered over to the nearest display. One thing he did know, at least, was the kind of thing he would like to see Alexa wearing.

A few minutes in, he felt a lot more comfortable looking around, but he was yet to find the perfect item to buy. He stopped and picked up a one piece pink lace number that would leave very little to the imagination.

"I don't think that's the right size for your partner, sir," another sales assistant said gently, with a dazzling smile as she approached him. Clearly, she had seen him walk in with Lucy.

"Oh, she's not my partner, she's a friend," Dean clarified. "My partner is much smaller; only five feet tall."

"Ah, that makes sense," the girl said, her smile barely changing. "We have some smaller sizes over here, too," she gestured to a nearby display.

Looking over to where she had indicated, Dean's eye was caught by something else. A mannequin was standing near the display, showing off a silky dark blue number. Dean could not have even guessed at what the style would be called, but he saw that the top was not a bra as such; it was closer to simply being a piece of silk which wrapped around the chest to cover the breasts. The front of it was styled in a bow. A thong in a matching colour completed the set. "Do you have that in pink?" he asked, pointing.

"We do have other colours. I can check for you if you know the size you require?"

Dean provided the sizes that Lucy had confidently given him.

"I'll go check stock for you, if you'll give me a couple of minutes?" the assistant said, happy to be close to a sale on a relatively expensive product.

"Sure," Dean agreed. While he was standing there waiting, Lucy walked over with one of the store's fancy bags in her hand. She had already made a purchase. "You bought yourself something," he observed.

"Yeah, although it's probably for Seth as much as for me," Lucy said coyly. Dean picked up her meaning perfectly clearly. "There's some kinky stuff down at the back," she went on. He was unsure if that comment related directly to her previous one or not. Either way, it had his interest.

Dean reminded himself again that Alexa had promised to wear whatever he bought. It would be criminal not to take advantage of a promise like that. "Can you wait here? One of the sales girls has gone to get something for me."

"Sure," Lucy agreed, hiding her satisfaction at the fact that he was now getting into the shopping experience.

Dean set off towards the back of the store, feeling himself getting aroused by some of the possibilities he could see on offer. He had spent days dreading coming to this place, yet now he was actually coming close to enjoying it. As Lucy had correctly predicted, he would be frequenting lingerie stores more often from this point forward.

"Jesus," he muttered under his breath. Some of the items on sale had to be barely classed as clothing. There was almost nothing to them. Other pieces had actual metal spikes on them. That wasn't Dean's scene at all.

Again, it was one of the mannequins that caught his eye. They were certainly doing their intended job with him. This one had an incredibly skimpy bra and panties set made from what looked to be black PVC. Dean was sold at first sight, even without the added bonus that there was a pair of long gloves in the same material which finished above the elbow. Alexa would look mind-blowing in that outfit, even if black was the only colour available.

"See anything good?" Lucy inquired innocently when he re-joined her.

"Yeah. There's something else I'm going to get."

Lucy asked no further questions. They waited another minute or so for the assistant to return. When she did, she was carrying a tasteful presentation box. Opening the lid, she showed Dean the items he had requested, in the perfect shade of pink to match Alexa's hair.

"That's great," he said with a satisfied smile. "I've seen something else I want to get, too. I can show you?"

"Certainly, sir," the woman said politely.

Dean felt like a bit of a cock, leading an assistant over towards all the kinky stuff at the back of the store. It was worth sucking it up, though. "Do you have that in the right size? And do you have any other colours?" he asked, pointing at the mannequin in the PVC attire.

"We also do it in red," the assistant said. "I'd have to check stock again for you."

"Do that, please," Dean said. "I'll take it in red if you have it. If not, the black will do."

"I'll go check for you now. Can I give you this one to hold onto?" She held out the box containing the items that Dean was already happy with. As he took it, Lucy joined him once more.

"Very nice, Dean. Very nice," she opined, having seen what he was going for as his second purchase.

Dean cringed. The only embarrassment he had left at this point related to Lucy seeing his choices. "Could you not?" he pleaded.

"Sorry," Lucy said quickly. "I wasn't trying to make you feel awkward. I actually do think it's really hot. Alexa will love it."

"You think?" Dean asked, all of a sudden happy to have her input.

Lucy nodded. "Definitely. Why do you think she said she would wear anything you bought? Sounds to me like she didn't want you to stick to the conventional."

"Maybe you're right," Dean said thoughtfully. He was looking forward to getting to the hotel room that night to show Alexa what he had bought. He was in luck that she had been sent to a meet and greet that day, so he hadn't even had to make an excuse to get away from her to come to the store. It would come as a total surprise that he had been on this little trip, and that promised to make her reaction even better.

A couple of minutes later, the assistant returned with Dean's second purchase, in his preferred colour of red. He paid for both outfits at the sales counter, then he and Lucy left the store.

"Wasn't so bad, was it?" Lucy asked once they were out in the mall. There was no attempt to needle him in her words.

"No, not really," Dean admitted. Even so, he was grateful to Lucy for coming with him. "How about I buy us a coffee somewhere before we leave?" he suggested.

"Okay, I'd like that," Lucy said, thinking about how far they had come since her first day as a member of The Shield, when they could quite happily have killed each other without a second thought.

Meanwhile, Dean could think of nothing other than the show Alexa would put on when he handed over his purchases. That moment couldn't come soon enough.


	10. Chapter 10

"That was really nice. Thank you, Dean," Alexa said when she finished the last of the room service meal he had ordered for them.

"Glad you liked it," he replied. A faster eater than her, he had been finished for some time. Somehow, he had managed to disguise his impatience while he had sat at the table with her. This was the moment he had been looking forward to all day, after his little shopping excursion with Lucy Thorne. "I made a little trip today, while you were at that meet and greet."

"A little trip?" Alexa inquired, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Yep, and I bought something for you. Actually, I bought a few things." Dean got up and walked over to the bed. Crouching down, he pulled out the large bag from the lingerie store which had stashed under there, out of sight until the right moment.

Alexa recognised the branding on the bag immediately. "You went to buy lingerie?" she asked rhetorically. Excited to see what he had chosen, she walked over to join him as he sat down on the bed.

Of the two sets he had to present, Dean chose to go with the more feminine and sensual option first. The fact that there was a presentation box for that particular set was an added bonus. He pulled the box out of the bag and handed it over.

"Look at this," Alexa breathed as she took it, sure that whatever was inside such a fancy box must have cost a small fortune. She opened it up and saw the fashionable pink, silky items inside. "Very nice," she said, taking out first the thong, then bra, not that it really was a bra as such.

"I've never seen anything quite like that before," Dean said when she held it up to her chest to see how it would look on her.

"Neither have I, but I like it. It's basically just a piece of silk, but it's very stylish in this bow shape at the front. The pink is perfect, since you wanted it to match my hair. It looks like it's the exact shade. I'll go try it on."

"I bought two sets," Dean said quickly before she got up. "I'm not sure what you'll make of the second one, but I took a risk on it. You did say you'd wear whatever I bought, if I bought something."

"So I did," she agreed. Although she wasn't shy about wearing something a little out of the ordinary for him, she still wondered what she might have let herself in for.

Dean took the neatly folded red PVC items out of the bag in one go and handed them over. To his great satisfaction, Alexa looked as though she liked what she was seeing as she unfolded them one by one to look at them. "What do you think?" he asked eagerly.

"I've never worn anything like this before, but I think it's kind of sexy. The material feels nice; very smooth. What is it?"

"It's PVC. You'll look like a real goddess in it, I promise." He knew that using her nicknames from WWE in an intimate manner was something she liked a lot.

In response, Alexa gave him one of those smiles that he adored so much. "And there are gloves to go with it," she said next, holding them up to look at them. "Really long ones, too. I like these."

"Me too," Dean assured her.

Alexa giggled. "I don't doubt that for a minute." She decided to tease him a bit, since he was blatantly more interested in seeing her in the PVC outfit than the silk one. "This one we can maybe try tomorrow night. Tonight we can have the pink stuff, since you like pink so much."

"Okay," he agreed, thinking that he had done an okay job of not sounding disappointed. After all, she was still going to look stunning in the pink attire.

"Put these back in the bag, please," she said after she had folded the PVC items up again. "I'll go and change for you now. Let's see if I could make a living as a model if wrestling doesn't work out."

"Oh, you definitely could," Dean said without a shadow of doubt in his voice.

"You say the nicest things to me, baby," Alexa said on her way to the bathroom with the presentation case in hand.

Dean packed the sadly unused outfit back into the bag and set it in the corner of the room. It was a real shame Alexa hadn't decided to wear that one tonight, but he was perceptive enough to figure out why. She wanted him to wait for that so that he would enjoy it even more. Right now it sucked, but in time the payoff would be worth it. He supposed he could make do with an insanely hot girl wearing some stunning pink lingerie for him as a second prize. There were definitely worse ways to spend an evening.

The minutes that dragged by while she was in the bathroom seemed to last forever. But eventually, the door creaked slowly open. Alexa stepped out into the room and stood in front of Dean, posing with her hands on her hips and a suggestive little bite of her bottom lip.

"Stunning," Dean said, feeling breath-taken at her beauty. She had even applied matching pink lip gloss while she had been in the bathroom. Without saying anything in reply, Alexa gave him even more of a show by turning around slowly, shaking her booty when it was facing him.

"My God you're beautiful," he said before getting up to go over to her.

Alexa pointed to the bed and sternly told him, "Stay where you are, mister."

The norm in their relationship, during sexual encounters at least, was for Dean to be the one in charge, often praising her for doing as he said. This time, it seemed, she had other ideas. While the going was this good, he decided to play along, and sat back down on the bed as instructed.

"Good," Alexa said, walking slowly over to him, taking off the silky garment to expose her pert little breasts as she did so. "I needed you to sit down so that I could do this." She sat on his lap, facing him, dropped the long piece of silk onto the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Now kiss me."

Part of Dean wanted to take the initiative and refuse to do what she told him, but he could contain himself no more. Taking her head in his hands, he kissed her with such force that it was almost aggressive. "Fuck, the things I want to do to you right now," he growled in between kisses.

"Well, tonight you're going to do as you're told," she said sternly, a frown on her face, riling him up even more. Damn, she was so good at saying the right thing, at the right time, in the right tone, with the right expression on her face. He had never been with a woman with quite such a talent for it. Unfortunately for her, he wasn't a man to be ordered around, no matter how good she was at it.

"I don't think so," Dean said. In a move so swift that she couldn't react to it, he rolled her off his lap and onto the bed, her head landing on one of the pillows. "Now I'm the one in charge," he said, looking down on her.

Despite the pretence she had momentarily put on, Alexa loved it when he was assertive with her like that. In fact, the more so the better, and that was often how it played out, since if she resisted him, it only fired him up more to have her do as she was told. It was all part of a game that they had both enjoyed almost from the start of the fiery relationship. For those reasons, she decided to resist him a bit more before bending to his will. "I don't think so," she said. "I'm going to be the one giving the orders out tonight." She tried to push him over so that she could mount him, but he held firm.

"You ain't ordering me to do anything," he said gruffly, starting to massage one of her breasts, while using his other hand to firmly push her back down onto the bed.

Alexa could tell how much her words were getting to him. It was driving him wild, and that it turn was doing the same to her. "You can't stop me," she said defiantly. They would prove to be rather poorly chosen words.

"Oh, really?" Dean asked, deciding that was a challenge had to rise to. Luckily for him, her silk top was lying on the bed right next to him, where she had dropped it a few moments earlier. He picked it up, stretched it out and rolled it nice and tight on its width. "I think this should stop you pretty well," he said as he wrapped the material around her neck and tied a secure knot at the back.

"Don't you dare!" Alexa warned, eyes widening, knowing what he was going to do.

"Sshhh." Dean lifted the rolled up silk over her chin, then placed it between her teeth; the knot pulling it tight against the corners of her mouth as soon as he let go. The material was so thick that she couldn't even close her mouth around it.

Just like that, Alexa found herself gagged; hardly able to move her mouth, and therefore, definitely unable to give out any more orders. "Mmmmphh," she protested, surprised herself at how muffled it sounded.

"Jesus, you look so sexy like that," Dean gasped. The pink silk, tied in between her glossy pink lips looked truly amazing. Then there was the wide-eyed look on her face. As always, she was playing her part perfectly. Her acting abilities were wasting on WWE's audience, he thought. "Are you okay?" he asked, just to make sure. Sex games were all well and good, but only if both parties felt comfortable and enjoyed them.

"Mmmmm." It was clearly a positive response.

"Good girl," he said with a satisfied smile. "Now, be quiet, and don't try and take the gag off. If you do, I'll have to tie your hands."

"Nmmph!" Alexa squealed, clearly not keen on that idea, as confirmed by the indignant expression that had appeared on her face.

"Sshhh," Dean encouraged once more. He began to massage both of her breasts before leaning over her and starting to lightly kiss the side of her neck.

Pleasurable sensations of all kinds coursed through Alexa's body, intensifying by the moment as his hands and lips worked their magic on her. Breathing wasn't particularly easy with the gag in her mouth, and neither was staying quiet, as she had been instructed to. Small, involuntary moans kept escaping her.

"You like that, don't you, Little Miss Bliss?" Dean asked, his voice thick with desire. He wanted to be doing a lot more than kissing her and fondling her tits, but the foreplay was necessary.

"Yes, keep going," Alexa tried to say, not that the attempt produced anything more than incomprehensible noises. The inability to speak was frustrating to an extent that she had rarely experienced before, and it only got worse when she felt drool begin to escape one corner of her mouth. She was powerless to stop even that without taking the silky material out of her mouth, but Dean had already told her what the consequences of that would be. As she had not experienced bondage before, she wasn't keen on getting into something like that without at least the chance to talk it over with her man first. So, she had to obey what he had told her. Needing to fight her instincts and keep her hands busy, she wrapped her arms around Dean's back and dug her nails into him.

Dean grunted as he took the pain, not minding it one bit. He recognised it as a sign of her enjoyment of what he was doing and the situation he had put her in. His next move was to slip a hand between her legs, pleased to discover how wet she already was. "You're ready for this, huh?" he asked before setting his fingers to work, wanting to tease her.

"Mmmpphhh!" she pleaded, looking longingly at him.

"Since you asked so nicely," Dean grinned. He entered her with two fingers and rubbed her clit with his thumb – his well-practiced technique. He was soon rewarded with more moaning sounds, increasing in volume and pitch the closer she came to her climax.

"There we go. Come for me, baby," he encouraged once he felt her body quivering under his touch. He had been looking into her eyes the whole time, enjoying the emotions he could see in them.

Alexa closed her eyes now, biting down hard and sinking her teeth into the silky material in her mouth as she reached her peak. She clenched some of the bedding in each of her fists, then felt herself come.

"Such a fucking goddess," Dean breathed when it was over, watching her trying to regain her breath; not an easy task. Her hair was a mess and a few beads of sweat had appeared on her brow. Dean wiped them away with his other hand. "You are the sexiest woman in the world, you know that?"

"Mmmm," Alexa responded, in the sweetest way she could manage.

"And do you know what I want to do now?"

"Fuck me," Alexa tried to say.

Dean loved that he had been able to work out those two intended words. "Oh yeah," he said. A moment later, he was straddling her, his rock hard length at her entrance. Looking down at her face, he knew that he would commit the sight to memory. She looked so beautiful, somewhat vulnerable, and yet at the same time she had nothing but desire for him in her eyes. No man could hope for more from his woman.

Gripping her hips, he lifted her slightly and slid between her folds with a groan of his own, loving how tight she felt around him. Still in a dominant mood, he began to pound away, enjoying the loud moans he got as a response. Ordinarily, he would have leaned down so that they could kiss while they fucked, but that wasn't possible on this occasion. Instead, he continued to revel in the look in her eyes. She was being dominated; she knew it, and she loved it.

The pace of this thrusts got quicker and quicker until he felt her climaxing for the second time, again with her head tilted back, straining against the gag. Only then did he grant himself his own release, unloading inside of her over the course of several final thrusts, accompanied by ecstatic grunts.

"Oh, God," he breathed, pulling out of her and crawling up the bed to lie beside her.

Now that it was over, Alexa really wanted to be free of the gag. Her jaw hurt and her chin was covered in drool. "Tmmk thmph mmmt," she pleased, gesturing with her eyes as a further hint as to what she wanted. She was still mindful of his instruction not to take it out herself.

"Okay, I'll take it off," Dean agreed, feeling a rush at how submissive she was; still obeying him after the sex. She lifted her head so that he could reach the knot behind her neck and he untied it. With that done, he had an easy job of removing the silk from between her teeth. It was soaked with her saliva.

Alexa sighed with relief and wiped her chin, now that she was sure it was safe to do so. "God damn, Dean. I didn't expect you to do that. It was so frustrating, not being able to talk!"

"Would you let me do it again?" he asked, having thoroughly enjoyed both the experience and the way she had looked.

"I don't think letting you came into it," she pointed out; another perfect response for him. "But yes, we can do it again. It was uncomfortable and made me feel strangely vulnerable, but at the same time, that made the sex a different experience, and I liked it."

"If there was ever a perfect girl out there, I found her," Dean, kissing her sloppily on the lips.

"And I found my dream man," she purred. "I couldn't be happier, baby."

Dean flopped over onto his back, sharing the pillow with her. "Neither could I, darlin'. Neither could I."


	11. Chapter 11

When Alexa walked into the women's locker before Raw, she saw that she was the last to arrive. "Hey, everyone," she greeted her colleagues, sounding a lot more optimistic than she felt of getting a positive response. Most of the women had barely spoken a word to her since Renee had done such a good job of dragging her name through the mud for cheating with Dean. The reaction, or lack of it, proved to be the same on this occasion. Lucy and Bayley were the only ones to reply. Everyone else either remained silent, refusing to look at her, or carried on with the conversations they were already having.

Feeling incredibly downcast at being cut out of the group, Alexa bowed her head slightly and walked over to where Lucy was changing. To an extent, she could understand why her colleagues were acting the way they were, but that didn't make it feel any better from her point of view. Working for WWE was her dream job, yet now she was starting to dread walking into the locker room every night.

"You okay?" Lucy asked when Alexa sat down on the bench, looking down at the floor.

"Not really." Alexa felt tears filling her eyes as she choked out the words. Crying would only make things worse, she knew that. Even so, it was hard not to. Day after day of this was really starting to weigh heavily on her.

Lucy let out an irritated sounding sigh. For a moment, Alexa thought she was about to be on the receiving end of an outburst. To her immense relief, she was proven wrong. "Alright, I've had enough of this," the English woman said loudly, addressing the group as a whole. "Everyone, gather round over here."

Without any great enthusiasm, the women began to drift over, knowing all too well what the lecture was going to be about. Alexa didn't really want a scene to be caused on her behalf, but something did need to be said. At least there was a chance of them listening to Lucy, since she was becoming something of an authority figure amongst the Raw women.

"Come on, move it!" Lucy ordered more sternly, not impressed with the speed with which the group was assembling. Dana Brooke was still standing on the other side of the room, finishing typing something on her phone. "Brooke, are those ears painted on? Over here, I said!"

Embarrassed at being called out, Dana hurried over to join the others. Alexa tried to avoid making eye contact with any of them as much as possible, not wanting to risk seeing hatred in their eyes.

"Right," Lucy said when they were all assembled. "Over the past couple of months, I've had several of you pull me aside and ask me to do various things for you, like you look to me as the leader of the locker room. If that's what you want, that's what's going to happen, starting now. From this point forward, anyone who gets out of line will answer to me before it goes outside of our locker room. Anyone got a problem with that?"

Silence. Sasha Banks looked like she wanted to say something, but had thought better of it since no one else had spoken up. With that, the appointment was effectively made official.

"Good. Now, the first thing I want to address is the way you're treating Alexa. And yes, before you say anything, I know what Renee has told everyone about believing that Dean cheated on her with Alexa and then broke off their relationship before he got caught. Maybe that's true, or maybe it's not. If it is, I don't like it any more than you do, to be quite honest."

"Then why are you sticking up for her?" Emma demanded.

Alexa looked at Lucy, actually wondering the same thing herself. She was glad not to have been on the receiving end of the kind of withering look that Emma now received.

"Because you're being unprofessional, that's why. You can be Renee's friend; you can sympathise with her over how she feels and how she's been treated; you can even not like Alexa. No one can stop you doing anything of those things, and nor should they. Those are your decisions to make. But what you will do, and trust me, you will do it, is treat her professionally and with the certain amount of respect that professionalism requires. That means that when she walks into the room and speaks to you, you will stop give her the silent treatment like you've been doing. I've seen how miserable it's making her. Making someone feel that bad about simply turning up for work is essentially bullying, and that is not going to stand in this locker room. Do I make myself clear?"

A few vague mumbled responses came back from the women.

"I said is that clear?" Lucy thundered.

This time the responses were louder and more positive.

"Good," Lucy said. "We're all adults, so let's try acting like it. Okay, that's all."

The women quickly went back to their own places in the locker room, with the exception of Nia, who lingered behind. "Alexa?" she asked.

"Yeah?" Alexa said, hopefully that something nice might be coming her way from the woman she had been quite close to at one time.

"I don't like what you did with Dean, and yes, I do believe you slept with him while he was still with Renee. And with that being said, I certainly don't like the fact that you probably lied to all of our faces about it. Even so, I'm sorry for ignoring you when you spoke to me. That was childish of me."

"Thank you, Nia," Alexa said genuinely. Hearing those words, particularly the part about lying to the girls, motivated her to stand up and speak for herself. As nice as it had been for Lucy to defend her, she didn't want people to be polite to her because they had been effectively ordered to do it. What she really wanted was to make amends and get her friends back, if that was even possible at this point. To do that, she would have to start by being open and honest. Dean might not be pleased when he found out that she had spilled the beans, but she could cross that bridge when she came to it. Standing up, she called out, "Guys, can you give me a minute, please?"

With some reluctance, they stopped their conversations again and turned to face her.

Alexa saw Lucy give her an encouraging smile just before she started speaking. That little vote of confidence meant so much. "I get why you're all mad at me," she began, as humbly as possible.

"Disgusted would be a better word," Sasha said. She received a murmur of agreement around the room.

"Disgusted, then," Alexa conceded, willing to take that on the chin. "And you should be, quite frankly, because it's true, I did sleep with Dean while he was with Renee. I knew they were still together, yet I went up to his hotel room when he invited me, and I slept with him. There's no defending it. I won't even try. That's why I lied to you all when Renee told you about it. I knew you would all react this way, and I panicked because I didn't know what to do. You have every right to hate me for lying and for what I've done to Renee, but I don't want it to be that way. I've always liked working with all of you guys. I don't know what else I can say to you apart from I'm sorry."

For a moment, no one responded. Alexa looked around the room at each of their faces in turn, gladly seeing a slight softening in some of their demeanours.

Bayley was the first to speak up, offering a smile with her words. "I think that took a lot of courage to say. Cheating is something I really don't like at all, but we do all do things in life that we regret. I can only speak for myself, but I accept your apology. Seeing anyone upset really gets me down, so I hope everyone else can do the same and we can try and move on. This locker room should be a happy place."

"I agree," Nia said simply.

"Shouldn't you be apologising to Renee?" Sasha asked. "She's the one you really hurt, not us."

"She does have a point," Lucy had to admit. While it was true that she didn't like Alexa being made to feel ostracised by the rest of the roster, it was not as if she didn't understand the reason for it. Dean and Alexa seemed happy together, but they sure had made some terrible choices along the way.

"Do you really think Renee would want to hear an apology from me?" Alexa asked Lucy.

"Almost certainly not, but you should make the effort anyway. It's the right thing to do."

"If you apologise to Renee, then I'll accept your apology to me," Sasha decided.

Emma, Dana and Alicia voiced their agreement with that sentiment, then Dana added, "I don't hate you, Alexa; we've always gotten along just fine until this happened. It was just very surprising to hear about something so horrible coming from you, and very disappointing, once you lied to us about it."

"I get that," Alexa said humbly. "You're right about everything you just said. I should apologise to Renee, and I will. I hope that, in time, we can get past this because I love you guys." Getting that final sentence out had choked her up again. She rushed for the door before she burst into tears in front of them.

"Bless her," Bayley said compassionately.

Lucy realised that she was the one who should go after Alexa, both as the leader of the locker room, and more importantly as her teammate and friend. Walking out of the door, she saw Alexa standing further along the hallway with her head resting against the wall, obviously struggling to hold back tears.

Sensing someone walking up to her, Alexa refused to turn and see who it was. Hiding her shame was much more important in that moment. "Please just go away," she begged.

"I'm not going to do that," Lucy said softly.

Recognising the voice of possibly her only current friend in WWE, Alexa turned around and finally started to cry. "I can't take them all hating me," she blurted out through her tears.

"Come here," Lucy said gently, taking Alexa in her arms and allowing her to rest her head against her chest. Comforting people was not her strong suit, but she was willing to try her best. "They don't hate you."

"Yes they do, and they're right to," Alexa spluttered.

"No, they don't." Lucy stroked her teammate's hair, not realising herself how tender the gesture was. "They're pissed at you, but they don't hate you. Give it some time and things will work out, trust me."

"Promise?" Alexa asked, wanting to believe it.

"I promise. Now stop crying, huh? It's not going to help."

That was more like the Lucy that Alexa knew. Despite how sad and lost she had felt only moments before, she now found herself laughing and pulling away from Lucy's embrace. "That's more like what I expected you to say."

Lucy shrugged, a grin on her face. "I'm doing my best here."

"I know," Alexa said, turning serious. "And I really appreciate it. I honestly don't deserve sympathy after what's happened, but it does mean so much to have someone on my side."

"That's what partners are for. Twisted Thorne, right?" Lucy offered her fist for Alexa to bump.

"Twisted Thorne. Always," Alexa said, feeling a real bond between them for the first time as she accepted the fist bump. "I'm not going to see Renee tonight. I just can't face it. Tomorrow, maybe."

"Do it when you're ready," Lucy said sympathetically. "Come on, let's go back inside. Keep that chin up, okay? All of this shit will pass in time."

"Thanks, Lucy. I hope you're right." Feeling a lot better, she led the way back to the locker room.

Neither of them had seen Hunter Helmsley round the corner at the opposite end of the hallway just after Lucy had left the women's locker room. The boss had stood there and watched the scene unfold between them. By the time they went back inside, he had a smile on his face. Not only was Lucy Thorne showing a lot more maturity of late, there were real signs of chemistry between her and Alexa Bliss. That was a good thing, if the rumours he had been hearing about Bliss and Dean Ambrose were true. Her life backstage was not going to be easy for a while, being marked as a cheater; he knew that first hand from way back when. Getting involved himself was unlikely to help, so support from a friend would be key to getting her through it. Thankfully, it looked like she had exactly that kind of support from her new partner.

Equally important was what the apparent friendship between the two women meant for WWE's product. If they were indeed becoming friends off-screen, that could only mean good things for their work on-screen, too. Only a couple of weeks into the new gimmick, they were already starting to get over with the fans on social media, and that was before they were even an official team. Yes, he decided with a satisfied nod, he would definitely give them his full backing when it came to creative planning. Needless to say, so would Stephanie, since Lucy was involved in the team. If they could persuade Vince to get behind it too, there really could be a huge future ahead of Twisted Thorne. The possibilities, it seemed, were endless.


	12. Chapter 12

Dean had taken Alexa out for something to eat at a Chinese restaurant after Raw, knowing that it was among her favourite styles of food. He had expected a pleasant meal, hopefully to be followed by a night of hot sex in their hotel room, ideally involving the PVC lingerie that she was still yet to wear for him.

However, by the time they returned to the hotel, he had the distinct impression that it wasn't going to go like that. Alexa just hadn't been herself the whole time they had been out. Despite her repeated insistence that nothing was wrong, Dean didn't believe her for a minute. Even so, getting her to open up about what was on her mind was proving to be a difficult task.

"I know something's wrong," he tried when they walked back into their room, hoping that she would confide in him now that they had some real privacy. "I want to help, but I can't if you won't tell me what's going on."

Alexa slumped down on the end of the bed. She knew she would have to admit to Dean that she had told the truth about their relationship, the entire truth, to everyone in the women's locker room. The problem she had was that she didn't know how he would react. That was the frustrating thing about Dean: sometimes he would have a strong reaction to things that were pretty much insignificant, whereas other times he would show total indifference to things that had much bigger consequences. In that respect, he was a strange guy, but that was one of the things that made him attractive. She supposed, with that being said, that she had to take the rough with the smooth. "I did something you might not like," she mumbled, looking down at the floor.

There was only one thing that came quickly to mind for Dean. "You told someone the truth about us?" he guessed.

"Well, yeah," Alexa said, not looking up at him. "Actually, I told the entire women's locker room."

"Fuck's sake!" Dean exclaimed angrily, turning and pacing back towards the door just to do something other than punch the wall. He stood at the door, a clenched fist placed on it for a moment, trying to get himself under control. Yelling at her now wasn't going to change what she had done. That didn't mean that he had to be happy about it, though. Now everyone would know they were liars as well as cheaters. While people's opinions of him didn't concern her per-se, it still wasn't a good thing to have a bad rep backstage. The higher-ups in WWE took a lot more notice of that kind of thing these days than they had in the past.

"Dean, I had to do it," Alexa said desperately. "Please don't be mad at me."

Taking in a deep breath to compose himself, Dean turned back to face her. "Why? Why did you have to do it?" he asked, sounding a little calmer.

Alexa got off the bed and walked over to him. "They were all acting like they hated me, Dean. None of them believed the lies we came up with. They felt like they knew we had gone behind Renee's back, then we'd lied to try and cover ourselves. Let's be honest, that's exactly what happened. No one apart from Lucy and Bayley would even speak to me when I walked into the locker room tonight, and I just couldn't stand it anymore. I was on the point of crying when Lucy spoke up for me. She gave them a lecture about how they were treating me, but I knew that wasn't really fair on them. It was my fault, not theirs. That's when I realised the only way to actually fix things was to tell the truth, and to apologise to everyone, so that's what I did."

There wasn't much that Dean could say to counter that. The mess they were in was of their own making, when all was said and done, and the last thing he wanted was for Alexa to be vilified by the other women as a result of it. She had done what she thought was best to try and rectify the shitty situation. "How did they take it?" he asked, forcing his irritation aside.

"Quite well, all things considered. Sasha said I should be apologising to Renee as well. Honestly, she was right. I need you not be mad at me about this, Dean," she finished, looking hopefully into his eyes.

It was impossible for Dean to be angry with her, partly because he had no real grounds to, but mainly because of the puppy dog eyes she was giving him. He told himself it was his role as her partner to support her when she made important decisions about her future, such as this one. And also there was the fact that standing in front of the women and admitting the truth could not have been easy at all. She must have had an awful night, even without worrying about his reaction. "I'm sorry for going off like that, darlin'," he told her, leaning down and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I'm not mad at you; it's the situation that makes me angry. But that's our fault, just like you said. I'm certainly not going to take it out on you. Telling them the truth can't have been easy."

"It really wasn't," Alexa said, accepting his embrace and cuddling up to him as tightly as she could. It felt so good to be in her man's arms after such a stressful day, knowing that he wasn't angry with her. "I've still got to apologise to Renee," she said after a long moment.

"That's not going to go down well," he assured her. "I get why you want to do it, but you need to be prepared for her to slap you one. Trust me, I know her. You wouldn't think it to speak to her, or to look at her, but she has a temper."

"Frankly, I'll take a slap if it puts all the drama behind us," Alexa muttered into his chest. "It's a price worth paying. What about you, Dean? Hasn't anyone given you any grief?"

"I doubt they'll bother," Dean said offhandedly. "They know I don't give a fuck what they think of me, so what would be the point? As long as Seth and Rome are on my side, which they are, the rest of them can say or think whatever they want. I have to work with them, not like them."

Alexa pulled away slightly so that she could look up into his eyes again. "I wish I could be like you, Dean."

"No, darlin', you don't," he said gently. "You're perfect just the way you are."

On tiptoes, she reached up and kissed him. "You say the nicest things to me, baby."

"Yeah, well don't tell anyone. I got an image to keep up," Dean said with one of his trademark grins.

"Then I can't tell them you took me out for a lovely meal, either. I'm sorry I didn't say much, or look like I was enjoying it. I'll pay for us to go out somewhere tomorrow night to make up for it," she promised.

"Now you're talking," Dean said, deciding to push his luck. "And when we get back, I think it's about time I got to see you in lingerie I bought for you."

"But I already wore it the other night," Alexa said, her face a picture of innocence.

"Not the pink set, the other one," Dean said, his voice taking on that gruff tone she was used to hearing when he was getting turned on.

"Oh, that one!" she exclaimed, making like she had just remembered it. "I guess I could be persuaded to wear that one."

"No persuading. You already promised."

"Maybe I did, but sometimes I'm a naughty girl," Alexa said coyly, slipping somewhat into her WWE character.

"That you are," Dean agreed. "And that's just the way I like it." With that, he kissed her, simultaneously picking her up off her feet and carrying her over to the bed. The talking was over for the night.

* * *

The latest travel arrangement was for Seth and Lucy to carpool with Dean and Alexa. It cut down on everyone's expenses, and it gave the four the chance to spend more time with each other. On this particular occasion, driving to Tuesday night's house show, the guys were in the front, with Seth driving, and the girls in the back.

"Do you know if Renee will be there tonight?" Alexa asked, keeping her voice low, so that Dean and Seth didn't hear her over their own conversation.

"She usually is," Lucy replied. "She'll be doing Network interviews, website clips, all that bollocks."

Alexa giggled. "I love that word! It's just so… English."

"That would explain why I use it," Lucy said dryly. "So, are you going to speak to Renee tonight? I assume that's why you asked."

"Yeah, I think I will. I figure the quicker I get it done, the quicker I can try and move on. Maybe Renee can, too, depending on how she feels about it all."

"I'm going to guess she's not exactly happy about it," Lucy said, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"What I meant was, she told Dean she's dating someone else. Maybe she's already moving on and she wants this whole mess behind her, too?"

"Hmmm," Lucy said, not the least bit convinced by the idea. "Even if that's not the case, it's still a good idea to get the apology out of the way."

Alexa had to admit that there was another likely scenario. "What do I do if she slaps me? I think that's a real possibility."

"If she does, take it, then walk away," Lucy advised. "That's what I'd do. At least you will have done your bit by apologising. You heard what the girls said last night: if you apologise to Renee, they will accept your apology to them. It's not contingent on Renee's reaction."

"Good point. I said to Dean last night, I'd take a slap if that was the price to pay for moving on. I'll go and see her, then whatever happens, happens."

"Look on the bright side, Alexa. By the end of tonight, the worst of the drama should be behind you."

Seth had just driven into the parking garage at the arena. "Thank god we're here," he was saying. "There's a strong cup of coffee in catering with my name on it."

"That's not a bad idea," Dean agreed.

There were plenty of free spaces in the garage. Seth chose one of the closest ones to the entrance to the arena, leaving them less of a distance to take their cases. He parked up, and all four people got out of the car. The job of unloading the cases from the trunk was left to the men.

"Thank you," Alexa said sweetly when Dean set her case in front of her.

Next came Lucy's case. Seth lifted it out and put it down in front of his girlfriend. "Thanks," she smiled.

Meanwhile, Dean had hauled his own case out of the trunk. He turned around with it and froze in place for a moment.

Seth noticed the change in his close friend on instinct more than anything else. He looked at Dean, then in the direction he was staring. He saw that Renee had just gotten out of a car a few spaces away. That wasn't the problem, though. What had caught Dean's attention was the person who had been driving the car, who now walked around and kissed Renee on the lips when they met each other by the trunk. She was dating Finn Balor, of all people; someone Dean had never gotten along with to put it mildly, for reasons that no one could probably even remember at this point. Whatever had started it, the two men had just never seen eye to eye.

"What the fuck?" Dean asked quietly as he dropped his case to the floor, with an undercurrent that Seth recognised. Even though Dean had cheated and ended the relationship, and was more than happy with Alexa, he was still going to go and kick off with Finn.

"Dean, leave it, huh?" Alexa asked, not wanting a confrontation to make things worse than they already were.

Dean was not in a listening mood. All he could concentrate on was Finn Balor kissing Renee, and noticing that they seemed so happy with each other. To him, the only way Renee could be as happy as she looked with Finn this quickly was if she had been cheating on him, just as he had been cheating on her. Yes, he decided, that must be what had been going on. And Renee had had the nerve to get on her high horse and drag his name through the mud; to drag _Alexa's_ name through the mud. And if all of that wasn't bad enough, the man in question was Finn Balor; someone she knew he hated. Finn had probably been banging his girl behind his back, and laughing at him the whole time he was doing it. The fact that Dean had happily moved on with Alexa was immaterial for the moment.

"She's right, man," Seth said. "Come on, let's go inside." He put a hand on Dean's shoulder to try and guide him towards the arena's entrance.

But Dean was having none of it. Shrugging Seth off, he began to charge over towards Renee and Finn. "I'll fucking kill him," he growled.


	13. Chapter 13

It was probably lucky for Dean that Seth managed to grab hold of him before he made it more than a few paces away from the car. "Dean, leave it! Having a fight isn't going to do anything apart from get you in the shit."

"Fucking get off me," Dean snarled, trying to break free of his friends grasp.

"Dean, calm down!" Alexa pleaded, stunned by his angry reaction to seeing his ex-girlfriend with another man. Why would it bother him so much? Unless, she thought with a sinking heart, he still had feelings for Renee. Could that be the reason?

By now, Finn and Renee had seen Dean trying to come over to them. "What up, buddy? Having second thoughts?" Finn called out sarcastically.

"Come over here and say that!" Dean challenged.

Simultaneously, Alexa shouted, "Just get out of here, both of you. You're just causing trouble."

Dean wasn't the only one whose anger was getting the better of them now. Renee started storming over to the group, clearly intent on confronting Alexa. "Oh, we're causing trouble? That's rich coming from you, you little tramp."

Her path was soon blocked by Lucy, who stepped in front of her. "Back off, Renee," she ordered, trying to bring some calm to the situation.

"Move!" Renee said aggressively, trying to push past the taller woman. That proved to be a mistake.

Lucy shoved Renee back much harder, sending her stumbling backwards. A stark warning quickly followed. "I don't have a problem with you, Renee, but if you touch me again I'll flatten you."

By now, Seth had succeeded in manhandling Dean towards the entrance to the arena, albeit with him still shouting abuse at Finn. Then his attention shifted to Renee. "You fucked up little bitch. You were sleeping with him while we were together, weren't you? And you had the nerve to try and make everyone in the locker room hate Alexa and I. Fuck you!"

Alexa scuttled over to join her man, wanting to calm him down. That last outburst was a little reassuring, at least. If that was the reason he had lost his temper, maybe he didn't have feelings for Renee after all? It certainly didn't sound like it, with the abuse he had been shouting. If anything, it sounded like he was mad on her behalf because of how Renee had gotten the other women to treat her. But then, if that was the case, why had his initial outburst been directed at Finn?

The truth was, she had no idea what to make of what had gone on in the past couple of minutes. It had all happened so quickly, and so many things were running through her mind at the same time. That horrible feeling refused to leave her, though. A voice in the back of her head was asking what if she was nothing more than cheap sex to Dean after all? What if all he wanted was someone who would model sexy lingerie for him? What if there were no genuine feelings there at all? If that was the case, if what she felt for him was not returned in kind, she would be heartbroken.

"Where are you going?" Finn shouted at Dean, challenging him again.

"Finn, just fuck off," Lucy said with contempt as she and Alexa grabbed the guy's cases along with their own and headed towards the building. "You obviously want him to hit you so he gets himself in the shit. It's not going to happen, so just shut your mouth."

Having heard the shouting, several backstage crew members came out of the arena's entrance, just as Seth shepherded Dean inside. "Alright, get off me, Seth," he said, knowing that the confrontation was over now that there were plenty of people around. Lucy was right, smacking Finn in front of some many witnesses was probably exactly what the prick wanted to happen. If so, he wasn't going to get his wish.

Seth cautiously let go of Dean, ready to grab him again if he tried to walk back out into the parking garage instead of further into the building. "You good?" he asked.

"Yeah," Dean sighed. Then he saw the look on Alexa's face, and he knew that he had a problem. She looked shocked by what she had seen, but even worse, there was distrust in her expression as well. He was hot tempered, but he wasn't stupid; he knew that he had fucked up by going off like that. Understandably, she was worried by the fact that he had focused some of his anger on Finn. He had given the impression, wrongly, that he still had feelings for Renee.

"What the hell, Dean?" Alexa asked sadly. "Why are you so angry with Finn? I don't understand."

"It's not what you think," Dean assured her, knowing that simply saying that wasn't going to cut it.

Seth realised that she and Dean were going to need some privacy, and fast. Besides, Finn and Renee would come into the building soon, and the whole thing might kick off again. "Why don't we go find our locker room and you guys can talk in there?" he suggested, conveying the message to Lucy with his eyes that they should make themselves scarce. He received a slight nod of agreement in response.

A minute later, they walked into at The Shield's locker room. Luckily, the room was empty, Roman having not arrived as yet. "We'll leave you to it," Seth said as soon as he had stored his and Lucy's cases in the corner of the room.

"See you in a bit," Lucy said, giving Dean what she hoped looked like an encouraging smile. "Alexa, come find me if you need to when you're done. We'll be in catering."

"Thanks," Alexa said glumly. When the door closed, she had to get right to the point. "Tell me you don't still have feelings for Renee, Dean?"

Dean looked her in the eye, wanting to be perfectly clear about with his answer. "I don't still have feelings for Renee. Far from it, in fact."

"Then why were you so angry with Finn?" she asked, hands on hips. "Because it seemed to me like it might have been because he's with her and you're not. Do you want her back?"

Running his hands through his hair in frustration, Dean said, "I don't want her back. I don't have feelings for her. I was angry because that fucking potato-munching prick made sure to park near us and kiss her in front of me to get a reaction. She might have encouraged him to do it, I don't know. Either way, they baited me, Alexa, and I fell for it because I'm a fucking idiot."

"But why would it make you angry? That's what I'm trying to understand. Why can't you just ignore Finn kissing her if she means nothing to you? I want to know what was going through your mind, and I want you to be honest. If you can't do that, then we have nothing, Dean."

"I am being honest," he insisted. "You want to know what I was thinking when I first saw them? Okay, I'll tell you. I was thinking about what Renee said to me when she told me it was her who saw us in the club that night. She accused me of cheating on her, saying she could tell we had been together for some time. That's why she went around the place making me out to be a piece of shit and making you out to be a slut. When I saw them out there just now, I thought the same thing," he said, pointing in the direction of the parking garage. "It seemed to me like they've been seeing each other for some time. I think she's accused us of doing exactly the same thing she's done, and you came out with the worst of it. That's what pissed me off most of all."

"Okay," Alexa said, her tone softening considerably. Nothing about his words or body language seemed dishonest to her. However, he still hadn't answered the question, not exactly. "But you said you were going to kill Finn. You directed your anger at him, not Renee."

"I couldn't exactly go and smack her one, could I? Plus, like I said, I could tell he was trying to piss me off. I don't react well to things like that. He knows that, and so does Renee. They baited me and I went for the bait. I don't know what else to tell you."

Alexa believed him. She hoped she wasn't being gullible, but it really didn't seem that way. Even so, it was time to see if he felt as committed to their relationship as she was. If they were going to become something serious, it was time to get serious. If he could do that, then she would trust him. "What you can do is tell me what I mean to you, Dean. This isn't just sex for me; it's not just walking around a hotel room in expensive lingerie. This is a relationship that means a lot to me. I want to know where you stand, because if you don't feel the same way, we might as well…"

"I do feel the same way," Dean cut in, before she could mention ending it. He decided the best way to convince her was to be frank about it. "Look, if this was just sex for me, I would have already said fuck it and bailed by now, instead of having this conversation. If I didn't care, I wouldn't pretend that I did. That's just not the kind of guy I am, and I think you know that. But I do care. I want to be with you, Alexa. I left Renee to be with you, and I certainly don't want us to let that pair of fucking idiots out there ruin it for us now we've come this far. They're probably laughing at us right now because they know we're having this exact conversation. I played right into their hands, and I'm sorry, okay? As I said before, I'm an idiot who doesn't think before he loses his cool. I really don't know what else I can say."

The part about Renee and Finn laughing at the upset they had caused resonated with Alexa. She could easily see that being the case. Her instincts told her to believe what Dean had told her. "You don't have to say anything else," she told him, walking into his arms. "Just promise me you won't get into any more arguments with either of them. We don't need the drama, and it'll probably end up being you who gets in trouble for it anyway. If they want to stir shit about us, that's up to them. I said I was going to apologise to Renee, but forget it, it's not going to happen now. I'll have to tell the girls in the locker room later, because they were expecting me to do it."

"Lucy will stick up for you," Dean said, holding her tightly to him, glad that she had seen sense and listened to him. "She saw how Renee tried to go for you out there. There's no way you could be expected to apologise to her after that."

"Let's hope they see it that way," she said quietly. "I really can't be dealing with any more drama, Dean. Yes, it was wrong how we started out together, we both know that, but are we supposed to pay for it forever? I'm really sick of all the crap. Why can't people just leave us alone and let us be happy? Damn it, it's not as if Renee is sitting around crying that she lost you. She can move on and be happy, yet she expects us to still take shit from everyone."

"It's bullshit, darlin'," he agreed. "This is why I wish you could be a bit more like me in terms of not getting upset by other people's reactions to you. I know you hated it when everyone was ignoring you, but you told them all the truth and apologised for lying. That should be enough for them. If they still don't want to treat you fairly after that, I say fuck 'em. Like I said before, they obviously weren't friends of yours to start with if they can turn on you that easily. Lucy didn't. You said Bayley didn't. They didn't like what you'd done – what we'd done, I should say – but they didn't turn their backs on you. That's not what friends do."

Alexa pulled herself out of his embrace and looked up into his eyes, feeling a new sense of determination. There was no decent counter argument to what he had said. If the other women were determined to shun her for the rest of time based on what Renee had told them, then so be it. "You know what? You're right. I'm not going to go grovelling to them for approval again. I have Lucy and Bayley who will be friendly to me come what may. Nia probably will too. If the others don't, that's up to them."

"That's my girl," Dean said, smiling broadly. "So, we're good?"

"Of course we're good," Alexa smiled back. She reached up and gave him a peck on the lips.

The locker room door open then, and Roman walked in with his case. "Oh, hey," he greeted them pleasantly. "Are you guys okay?"

"We're fine," Alexa replied with one of those sweet little smiles. It was the best thing Dean had seen or heard all day.


	14. Chapter 14

The Royal Rumble pay-per-view was only a matter of hours away. Among the women, the anticipation was particularly great. For the first time, they were going to be involved in a rumble match of their own. Twenty women would be competing for the honour of winning the first ever Women's Royal Rumble, and the chance to call themselves Raw Women's Champion, since Alexa's title had been made the grand prize on offer for the winner.

Most exciting of all was the fact that none of the competitors yet knew who the winner was going to be. Vince, Hunter and the creative team were keeping that particular piece of information close to their chests, only to be revealed just before the show went on air. The outcome had understandably been the subject of much discussion in the women's locker room. There were only two certainties known to Lucy and Alexa, namely that neither of them would get the win. Their eliminations were to play a critical part in the official formation of the Twisted Thorne tag team.

In catering, the two members of that upcoming team had been enjoying a chat over a cup of coffee, while they had a further discussion of their own about the rumble match. Alexa had pointed out that twenty spots in the match was too many for the number of active women on the Raw and Smackdown rosters combined. Surprises were guaranteed, but much like the ending of the match, nothing had been said to the competitors about what was planned. Lucy and Alexa had spent some time trying to guess who the mystery entrants might be, until Lucy went to get them a second cup of coffee.

While she was fetching the drinks, Lucy's memory had jogged, reminding her of something she had meant to tell her friend several times over the last few days, only to forget every time. "There's something else I've been meaning to tell you about tonight," she announced when she returned to the table, handing over Alexa's black coffee.

"Thanks. What have you wanted to tell me?"

Lucy sat back down and took a sip of her piping hot drink. "It slipped my mind a few times, even though I've been looking forward to it. Seth and I hooked our next door neighbours up with tickets for tonight."

"Oh, that's nice," Alexa said, even though Lucy hadn't finished.

"Yeah. The main reason is, they're bringing their daughter with them. She absolutely loves wrestling, so she could hardly believe it when Seth and I moved in next door to them a few months ago. I swear for a start she didn't really think it was us."

Alexa giggled. "How old is she?"

"She's ten. It's weird; I never expected myself to like a kid. They've always irritated me, especially babies, but Clementine is really cool. I think it's because she's mature for her age, you know? Anyway, she has a backstage pass for tonight. I'm going to show her around the place. Maybe you can come with me and meet her?"

"Sure, I'd love to meet her," Alexa agreed easily. "Clementine is a really nice name, and she sounds like a great kid from what you've said. Why are you showing her round, though? You could have just got passes for her parents, too."

"Really? I didn't think of that," Lucy said dryly. Sarcasm was often her form of wit, a fact that Alexa was already getting used to. "Her parents aren't really interested in wrestling; they're just bringing Clem to the show. I didn't see the point dragging them around back here, so I said I'd take her on a tour, and promised her that she would get to meet some of the other wrestlers. Actually, Clem's been a big fan of yours for a while, even before we were a team. She's got the Alexa shirt, the gloves, and she's got a women's title belt. I've seen her doing that signature pose of yours with it. That's why I asked you to come meet her."

"Aww, that's the sweetest," Alexa said, feeling her heart melt as she took a drink from her cup. "It sounds like you and Seth are quite close to this family?"

"I don't know about that, but they're good neighbours. We've been to barbeques and poker nights at their place before, and we've had them over to ours a few times. Just the usual neighbourly stuff, really. But like I said before, Clem's fun to be around. She asks a lot of questions about wrestling, but she manages not to be annoying with it."

"Questions are totally understandable from a ten year old. I can't even imagine how excited I would have been to have two of the biggest WWE stars living next to me when I was a kid. They would never have been able to get me out of their house," Alexa chuckled.

"Thankfully it's not that bad," Lucy grinned. "It will be fun to give her the tour."

"You asked me to come with you to meet her," Alexa remembered. "Is Seth not going?"

"No. I asked him if he minded if you and I went, since Clem's such a fan of yours. I knew she would enjoy it more if you came with us, and that's what it's about tonight."

"That's really sweet of you," Alexa said genuinely, seeing another side of Lucy for the first time. If someone had asked her even half an hour earlier what the prospects were of Lucy willingly giving a tour of the backstage areas to a ten year old girl, she would have said slim to none, yet here they were discussing it, and Lucy was obviously excited by the prospect.

"Don't tell anyone, will you?" Lucy said with a conspiratorial smile.

"The secret is safe with me," Alexa promised. "And I'll definitely come with you. I'm looking forward to it."

* * *

An hour later, Lucy and Alexa were waiting a short distance away from the door where the fans with backstage passes would soon be admitted. They would be getting their tour with Bayley and Jason Jordan, who had been assigned the task for this particular night. Lucy had already told Bayley about the special guest she was expecting. The response had predictably been enthusiastic, with Bayley promising to come over and pose for a picture with her.

"Here they come," Alexa said after a member of the security staff opened the door. Fans began to file through, delighted especially at being greeted by Bayley, who immediately started issuing hugs to adults and children alike.

"She really loves this stuff, doesn't she?" Lucy said.

"Yeah," Alexa agreed, smiling.

"Come on, I want to be there when Clem comes in," Lucy said, leading the way over to the door. Just as they approached, she saw her special guest walk in. "There she is. I knew it; she's got your merch on."

Alexa saw the girl in question. Dark skinned, with long black hair and a look of uncertainty on her face as she looked around, trying to locate Lucy in the crowded area. She was a sweet looking kid, there was no doubt about that, especially in the Twisted Bliss shirt.

Clementine finally looked over in their direction, seeing Lucy and immediately running. "Lucy!" she called out. One of the security team took a step closer, but Lucy stopped him with a small hand gesture.

"Clem! How are you?" Lucy asked with the exuberance used to talk to excited kids. Crouching down, she offered a hug, which was enthusiastically accepted.

"This is awesome!" Clementine said, looking over Lucy's shoulder at Alexa. "I saw Bayley! And there's Alexa!"

Lucy separated herself from Clementine and stood up, looking through the open door for Clem's parents. As they didn't have backstage passes, they would not be allowed through the door by security, but they would have waited in line with their daughter, of course. Sure enough, they were looking through, wanting to make sure that Lucy had been there to meet her as agreed. She provided that confirmation with a little wave, which was returned in kind by both parents.

"Are your mom and dad okay, Clem?" Lucy asked. She might as well have saved her breath. The excited ten year old was already receiving a hug from her favourite wrestler, Alexa Bliss.

"It's great to meet you, Clementine," Alexa was saying. "Lucy was telling me all about you earlier. I love your shirt!"

"This one is my favourite," Clementine announced proudly. Holding up her hands, she added, "I have your gloves, too."

"So I see," Alexa said, making like she was very impressed. It was a good setup for the little surprise she had decided to bring with her. "I wasn't sure if you would, so I brought some for you." She pulled another pair of the fingerless leather gloves she wore to the ring out of her pocket. These were limited edition ones with gold skeleton fingers on the back, as opposed to the usual white. "These are special ones. I want you to have them."

"Oh wow! Thank you," Clementine said, taking the gloves and admiring them. "These are much cooler than mine. And I can tell my friends I actually got them from you!"

"They're much cooler than mine, too," Lucy said. She wasn't wearing her ring attire, but when she did she wore plain black leather gloves, more in keeping with The Shield's style.

"Your outfit is boring," Clementine said simply, meaning no offense by it.

"Thanks, Clem," Lucy chuckled.

Clementine had now put on her new gloves. She offered the old ones to Lucy. "You can have these."

"I don't think they'll fit my hands, sweetheart," Lucy said. She tried to put one of the gloves on, and sure enough it was too small.

"Okay," Clementine said, sounding disappointed.

Lucy immediately wondered if she should have just accepted the gift. Luckily, Bayley chose that moment to come over. "Hi. Are you Clementine?" she asked with a broad smile.

"Bayley!" Clementine squealed, rushing over into a hug.

"I see you're one of the Blissfits," Bayley said warmly while they held each other.

"I am, but I'm still a hugger," Clementine said cautiously, obviously not wanting to offend.

"I can tell. You're actually a very good hugger." Lucy glanced at Alexa and they exchanged smiles. Bayley was a real natural with kids. "Why don't we get a picture before I carry on with the tour?" she suggested next.

"Can we?" Clementine asked, looking to Lucy for approval.

"Sure." Lucy took out her phone to get the picture, while Bayley crouched down next to Clementine. They both posed with Bayley's signature thumbs up gesture. "Got it," Lucy said after taking the picture.

"It was lovely to meet you, Clementine," Bayley said, needing to make a quick exit to get back to the rest of the group.

"It was lovely to meet you too," Clementine said politely.

"Okay, this girl is killing me," Alexa whispered to Lucy. "She's so sweet."

"I know," Lucy said quietly. Then she had to focus her attention back on Clementine as Bayley walked away. "Do you want a picture with Alexa, Clem?"

"Yes, please!"

Alexa crouched down beside Clementine and Lucy took another picture. When she put her phone back in her pocket, she said, "Now, how about we have a walk around, and we'll see who else we can find?"

"Let's go!" Clementine said enthusiastically.

"Okay, but you need to hold my hand. It's very busy back here, and I don't want you getting lost."

Clementine took Lucy's hand, but looked at Alexa. "Are you coming with us?"

"I think Alexa's got other things to do," Lucy said gently, not wanting her friend to have to trail round with them for the next half hour.

"I'll come with you until we get back to locker rooms, how about that?" Alexa offered.

"Awesome," Clementine replied happily.

Lucy had already planned out where she would take her special guest for the evening ahead of time. The first stop was the place where backstage interviews were conducted, in front of the background board with the Raw branding. "Do you recognise where we are?" she asked as they approached it.

"Cool! This is where the interviews happen," Clementine said. "Is Renee Young here?"

Thankfully not, Alexa thought, given the scene in the parking lot earlier in the day. "I can get a picture of you with Lucy if you like?" she suggested.

"Yes, please," Clementine said. Alexa noted how good her manners were; another reason Lucy probably liked her. It would likely have been another story entirely if the kid was a spoiled brat.

Lucy handed her phone to Alexa then crouched down, ready for the picture to be taken. "Give me a big clenched fist, Clem," she instructed. "And your best mean face." Giggling, Clementine posed with her fist clenched, while Lucy did the same.

"You can't laugh. You've got to look serious," Alexa said, enjoying herself just as much as the other two.

"Sorry." Clementine composed herself and did her best to copy Lucy's serious game face.

"That's a couple of mean looking girls right there," Alexa said with approval as she took the shot. She handed the phone back to Lucy.

"Where are we going next?" Clementine asked excitedly, taking Lucy's hand once more.

"Let's go and see if there are some other people we can find," Lucy said, knowing exactly where she was going to go. They walked along the hallway, seeing several wrestlers hurrying around in both directions as they did so. She could tell that it all seemed a bit surreal to Clementine. Then they reached the door to their destination. "Here we go," she said, giving the door a knock.

"Whose room is this?" Clementine asked.

"Let's go in and see." Lucy opened the door and ushered her inside.

Clementine walked into the room, then stopped in her tracks when she saw who was in the office they had entered: Triple H, Stephanie, and even Vince McMahon himself.

"Hello," Stephanie said with a kind smile. "Who do we have here?" She already knew the answer, Lucy having spoken to her earlier.

"Introduce yourself," Lucy encouraged gently.

"Hello, I'm Clementine," she said politely.

Stephanie offered her hand. "Clementine. It's nice to meet you." They shook hands, with some apprehension on Clem's part. By then, Hunter and Vince had stepped forward. "This is Hunter, and Vince."

"Hello, Clementine," Vince said, about as close as his booming voice ever came to being soft.

"Hello," she said nervously.

"Are you looking forward to the women's rumble match?" Hunter asked, wanting to make her feel a bit more at ease.

"Yes."

"And who's going to win? Lucy?"

Clementine looked at Lucy, seeming embarrassed by the answer she had in mind. "No. Alexa will win."

From over by the door, Alexa beamed. "You tell him, Clem."

"I thought you didn't come to the show anymore?" Clementine asked next, directing the question to both Hunter and Stephanie.

"We don't, honey," Stephanie said, taking it easily in her stride. "But the Royal Rumble is a special event, so we decided to come and watch, just like you did."

That explanation seemed to satisfy Clementine. "Lucy is giving me a tour. It's so much fun!"

"Well, thank you for stopping by to see us," Stephanie said, in a clever way to get back to work without seeming to dismiss their young visitor. "It was very good to see you."

"Enjoy the show," Hunter said with a smile.

Lucy took Clementine's hand and said, "Come on, let's see who else we can find."

"Bye!" Clementine said cheerfully as they made their way to the door. She had no idea how many hearts she was winning backstage.

The next stop was The Shield's locker room, where Clem got to pose for a picture with the entire team, joining in with the traditional fist bump pose. Then it was on to the women's locker room, where all of the ladies enjoyed chatting to Lucy's guest. More pictures were taken, then Sasha Banks surprised Lucy by handing over a pair of her signature glasses, helping Clementine to rest them properly above her forehead.

"Thank you!" Clementine said, delighted by the experience she was having, and now with her second gift of the night as well.

Lucy knew that, as much fun as they were having, they were running a bit late if they were going to have time to tour the ringside area before the crew closed it off in preparation for the show. "Clem, would you like to go and see the ring?" she asked.

"Can I go in it?" Clementine asked hopefully.

"I can't promise that, sweet pea, but we'll see what we can do. Say bye to everyone."

Alexa actually felt sad to be saying goodbye. She could definitely tell why Lucy had agreed to take Clementine on a tour; she was an absolute angel. "Thanks for coming to see us," she said when it was her turn, offering a hug.

"I still can't believe I met you," Clementine said while they embraced. "This is the best day ever."

"Aww, thank you," Alexa said, feeling her heart melting for the second time in the night.

They parted, and Clementine took Lucy's hand once more. Before they left, she had one more thing to say to Alexa. "Make sure you win tonight."

"I'll do my best," Alexa promised, smiling. With that, Lucy and Clementine walked away, hand in hand. She could hear Clem chattering away as they departed, already looking forward to the next part of her big adventure.

"Such a sweet kid," Sasha said, standing beside her.

"I know," Alexa agreed. "And Lucy is so good with her. I would never have expected that, from her of all people. She just doesn't seem the type."

"Right," Sasha agreed with a chuckle, watching the unlikely child/adult pairing now interacting with the enormous Braun Strowman at the end of the hallway.

"It's actually a shame now that I'm not going to win the rumble," Alexa said. "It's going to upset her when I get thrown out."

"Don't worry. She'll be okay Monday night when she sees the Twisted Thorne thing get started properly. I think I know which merch she'll be asking her parents for next, let's put it that way."

"Yeah, but it would still have been cool if I was going to be the one who won tonight."

Sasha grunted a laugh. "It would be nice if they even told us who's going to win."


	15. Chapter 15

After the promo for the first ever Women's Royal Rumble, Jojo was shown in the ring, ready to make her opening announcement. "It is now time for the Women's Royal Rumble match, and it is for the Raw Women's Championship!" She paused for a second while the crowd cheered. "In a moment, the individuals who drew numbers one and two will come to the ring. Every ninety seconds thereafter, another competitor will enter the match according to the number they drew. Elimination will only occur when a competitor is thrown over the top rope, with both feet touching the floor. The last woman standing will win the match, and the Raw Women's Championship."

"Thanks, Jojo. This is only a three hour show, you know," Corey Graves said sarcastically on commentary.

"Stop whining, Corey. Let's see who drew number one," Cole said.

Charlotte Flair's music began to play.

"Listen to this ovation!" Byron Saxton exclaimed. "The Queen drew number one!"

"And this is the problem I was going to bring up," Graves said as Charlotte made her way to the ring. "Kurt Angle made the stupid decision to put the Raw Women's Championship up for grabs in this match, when we have people like Charlotte, people from Smackdown, competing. We could end up with Raw's title being won by someone from Smackdown. Then where would we be?"

"It would certainly be a problematic situation," Cole admitted.

By now, Charlotte was in the ring. Saxton said, "Here comes number two. Who's it going to be?"

Becky Lynch's music hit, to another generous cheer.

"Oh, it's Becky Lynch," Cole called out. "Charlotte's closest ally and friend on Smackdown drew number two."

"There are no friends here tonight, Cole," Graves assured him.

"You're right, Corey. Neither of these ladies are going to give any quarter here, you can count on that," Saxton said.

Becky got into the ring and one of the referees at ringside ordered the bell to be sounded. The match was underway. As predicted, Becky and Charlotte locked up right away, setting their friendship aside in pursuit of glory in the historic match. The first ninety seconds seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, with Becky and Charlotte both getting in some exploratory offense. No attempt was made at an elimination. When the clock appeared on the big screen, counting down from ten, the fans excitedly joined in.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

A Buzzer sounded loudly, then Bayley's music hit. It received the loudest ovation so far.

"It's Bayley!" Graves called out as she ran to the ring. "Raw's first entrant in the match, and a former Women's Champion."

Bayley hit the ring and went right after Charlotte, who had been stomping on Becky in the corner of the ring. The two women fought for the next minute or so, again without any attempt being made at an elimination by either of them. Becky had just managed to get back to her feet when the countdown started again.

The buzzer sounded and Sasha Banks' music started up, to yet another cheer.

"It's Boss time!" Cole announced, clearly unaware of how cringe-worthy he sounded.

Sasha ran to the ring and slid under the bottom rope, only to find that the fighting had stopped. The three women already in the match had realised the significance of the moment that was now at hand. They each took up a corner of the ring, all wondering who was going to make the first move.

"The Four Horsewomen are all in the ring at the same time," Saxton realised. "I wonder when was the last time this happened?"

"I don't know, but we're not here to see them talk to each other," Graves moaned, as they were doing exactly that, maybe seeing if there was a possibility of forming some kind of alliance. "Come on, ladies! We want to see you fight!"

The women gradually walked into the middle of the ring. Sasha seemed to successfully negotiate something with Bayley, her close friend, then set about attacking Charlotte. Bayley paired off with Becky, the crowd cheering the intensity with which they all started fighting. They had taken so long to start battling each other that the countdown was soon starting again.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

After the buzzer, Summer Rae's music played. Unsurprisingly, there was almost no reaction from the fans as she ran to the ring. She slid under the bottom rope and found herself in a world of issues.

The Four Horsewomen had stopped fighting each other again, and were now all standing there, looking at the new arrival.

"Now wait a minute, this doesn't look good for Summer Rae," Cole said.

"Or anyone who might come out, if this is how it's going to be," Saxton agreed as Summer Rae tried to beg off from what seemed to be her fate: a very short stay in the rumble match.

"If these four ladies get on the same page, I don't see how anyone else is going to get into the match," Graves said. As he did so, Charlotte began the attack on Summer, forcing her back into the corner with hard knife edge chops, to the delight of the fans, who greeted each one with a, "Woo!"

Charlotte eventually moved aside, to allow Sasha to come flying in with a double knee strike to Summer.

Next, Becky walked over and hauled their victim to her feet, only to deliver a Bexploder suplex.

Bayley's turn came next, after Sasha picked Summer up. A Bayley-to-Belly suplex quickly put her back down.

There was a cherry to put on top of the cake. Summer was once again picked up by Sasha, while Charlotte waited in the corner of the ring. At the right moment, she ran forward and nearly kicked Summer's head off with a Big Boot.

"I think that's all for Summer Rae," Graves said dryly. He was right. Sasha and Becky picked her up and casually tossed her over the top rope.

"We have our first elimination," Cole announced. "Summer Rae is gone."

With perfect timing, the countdown started again. The Four Horsewomen seemed as eager as anyone else to see who was coming next, now that they had a much better strategy than fighting each other.

"It's Lana," Cole announced when the next entrance theme played. "The Ravishing Russian is in the Royal Rumble."

"Probably not for long," Graves guessed as Lana timidly jogged to the ring, where her four opponents stood waiting. Her stint in the match was about as effective as Summer's and proceeded in much the same manner. She took finishing moves from all four, and was then eliminated.

"Thanks for coming, Lana," Saxton said as the countdown started again.

"Let's hope it's someone more challenging for The Four Horsewomen this time," Graves said.

The buzzer sounded and the next person's music hit. "Oh, it's someone more challenging alright!" Cole called out. "Nia Jax is entrant number seven!"

Nia jogged down to the ring, showing no signs of intimidation. She climbed onto the apron, then through the ropes. Her opponents made the unwise decision to attack her one by one, each of them being fought off with strong right hands from the much larger woman. Now that she had the upper hand, Nia took advantage of it, delivering a huge Samoan Drop to Sasha, followed by one to Bayley, then another to Charlotte, and finally one to Becky. Although she was supposed to be a heel character, the crowd could not help cheering such an impressive display of offense.

Before any of her partners could recover enough to help, Becky was picked up by Nia and Gorilla Pressed out of the ring.

"Becky Lynch is gone. So much for The Four Horsewomen," Saxton said.

Sasha almost followed her, being slung over the top rope like yesterday's garbage by Nia. Luckily, she was able to grab onto the top rope, then roll back into the ring under the bottom one, to save herself from elimination.

Nia had turned around, straight into a Big Boot from Charlotte, which took the huge woman clean off her feet, and brought the crowd to theirs.

"Oh my, what a Big Boot that was," Graves said. "Nia's teeth are somewhere out there in the fifth row!"

In cheering the impressive move, most of the crowd had missed the start of the countdown. The only really caught it at three.

"Two."

"One."

Lita's entrance music hit, drawing another huge ovation.

"It's Lita!" Cole yelled. "The WWE Hall of Famer is back, and she's in the Rumble!"

Sprinting to the ring, Lita seemed to take Charlotte by surprise. They exchanged several right hands, with the new arrival getting the upper hand. Then, after a kick to the stomach, she was able to hit the Twist of Fate. The move was much appreciated by the crowd.

Nia was still down in the middle of the ring. Seeing this, Lita hurriedly climbed to the top rope, the crowd roaring her on. Their reward was a textbook perfect moonsault.

"It's like Lita's never been away," Graves said. "Can you imagine if she was able to pull this thing off tonight and become Raw Women's Champion?"

"I'd love to see that," Cole said.

Lita went to work on Bayley next, delivering several signature moves, before Bayley managed to counter and get the upper hand. That was when Carmella came out as entrant number nine.

"I can get on-board with this, a Baymella reunion was long overdue," Graves said as she joined Bayley in going to work on Charlotte, then on Nia."

The reunion was overdue, but it was also short-lived. Alliance forgotten for the moment, Sasha came at Bayley from behind and hit the Bank Statement. Carmella grabbed hold of her as she tried to get up and attempted to eliminate her, but Sasha reversed the momentum at the last moment and propelled Carmella over the top rope instead, sending her flying to the floor.

The next two entrants were Naomi and Emma, both arriving in the match without anyone else being eliminated.

"The ring is really starting to fill up now," Cole said.

"You're right," Saxton agreed. "I count seven women in there, and we've still got some big names to come. One thing we do know is, Alexa Bliss will be defending her Raw Women's Championship from the number twenty spot."

"That's for later, though," Graves said, noting that the countdown had started again. "We're about to get our number twelve. Who's it going to be?"

The buzzer sounded, then the crowd erupted when the next entrant's music hit.

"Trish Stratus!" Cole yelled. "Trish Stratus is here!"

"Oh my God," Saxton said. "I never thought we'd get to see Trish and Lita in the same ring again, but that's exactly what we're going to see, right here and now."

"Former rivals, now best friends," Cole said as Trish entered the ring, exchanging the briefest of hugs with Lita. They then turned their attention to the other women in the ring, performing a variety of double team moves on their opponents, one by one. Naomi came last, receiving Trish's bulldog finisher, followed by a moonsault from the top rope from Lita.

"The old guard are dominating here!" Cole called out excitedly.

"Less of the word old, Cole," Graves said. Meanwhile, the countdown was underway once more.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

After the buzzer, The Shield's music began to play. There was a loud reaction from the crowd, but it wasn't particularly distinguishable as a cheer.

"Lucy Thorne! Lucy Thorne got number thirteen!" Cole yelled as she ran to the ring.

"Lucy's number one job tonight is to make sure Alexa Bliss leaves with the Raw Women's Championship," Graves said.

"I doubt Lucy sees it that way," Saxton said.

They had to stop arguing because Lucy was in the ring. Her first action was to deliver the Thorne in the Side sitout piledriver to Lita. Trish ran at Lucy, only to find herself up on her shoulders.

"Thorne in the Side again!" Cole called.

Just like that, the two legends had been taken out. Emma was the next one to make it to her feet. She took a Thorne in the Side of her own and rolled to the outside. Bayley came next, followed by Noami, then Sasha, and then Charlotte.

"Lucy Thorne is on fire!" Graves exclaimed. "Every woman in the match has taken a Thorne in the Side. Apart from one, that is."

Nia was pulling herself to her feet in the corner of the ring. Lucy pointed to her, signalling her intention, then poised herself to strike once Nia turned around. The noise in the crowd rose in anticipation.

"Surely not," Saxton said quietly.

Nia stumbled towards Lucy, who crouched slightly, and actually managed to pick her up over her shoulder, visibly straining with the effort. The crowd couldn't help cheering the impressive feat of strength as Lucy hit her finisher yet again.

"Incredible," was Graves' verdict. "I've never seen anything like that in my life."

Opponents dealt with, Lucy dragged Lita to her feet, and with no ceremony at all, slung her out of the ring. With the crowd already booing, Trish quickly followed her. Lucy rubbed her hands together, in a gesture that suggested she had disposed of the trash.

Before the wrecking spree could continue, Charlotte came from behind, taking out Lucy's knee. It was a simple but effective attack, taking Lucy down right away. Sasha and Bayley joined in on the beat down that they knew was essential.

The countdown soon reached zero once more. Entrant fourteen was a surprise of a different nature. Zelina Vega, a manager from NXT, had been entered in the match. Despite her lack of experience, she showed no fear, running to the ring and getting right into the action.

Natalya, Alicia Fox and Tamina were the next three entrants, and the ring looked very full once again.

"Time for number eighteen," Cole said over the top of the countdown.

The buzzer sounded, then there was a familiar screaming sound. The fans cheered the big return.

"It's Paige! Paige has returned to WWE!" Cole yelled.

The second English woman to enter the match sprinted to the ring. Once inside, she found Naomi in prime position to be her first target.

"Paige with right hands to Naomi," Saxton announced. "Look at her go! Naomi's reeling here!" Sure enough, Naomi ended up backed into the ropes. Paige finished her off with a clothesline, sending her over the top rope and into elimination.

Alicia Fox tried to take Paige by surprise with a clothesline of her own, but Paige ducked it. Momentum nearly took Alicia over the top rope, but she was just able to stop herself. It did her no good, as Paige grabbed hold of her legs and scooped her over the ropes, to the floor.

Meanwhile, in other areas of the ring, Bayley eliminated Natalya and Charlotte eliminated Zelina Vega and Tamina in one go, catching them struggling to throw each other out and shovelling them both over the top rope instead. Just like that, the field was thinning out a bit.

Number nineteen was Mickie James. She jogged to the ring with little fanfare, but when she was halfway down the entrance ramp, the fans started booing. Someone else was also on the way to the ring.

"Wait a minute! There's Alexa Bliss!" Saxton cried out. "She's supposed to be number twenty! What's she doing out here now?"

Unaware that there was someone behind her, Mickie climbed up on the apron, then stepped through the ropes. Only a moment later, Alexa jumped up on the apron and grabbed her from behind, hauling her backwards over the ropes.

"No! That's not fair at all!" Cole protested. "Alexa Bliss isn't supposed to be out here yet, but she eliminated Mickie James."

"I guess we have a record for the shortest appearance in Women's Royal Rumble," Graves said with amusement. "Mickie can only have lasted five seconds."

Unsurprisingly, Mickie was livid with the unfair way she had been eliminated. She went to get back in the ring and go after Alexa, but she was stopped by the referees. In any case, Alexa was already hiding behind Lucy, from where she was pointing and laughing at Mickie. Some of the crowd were applauding, enjoying the antics and liking the Bliss/Thorne partnership.

Once Mickie had been led from ringside, promising vengeance on Alexa along the way, there was time for a quick strategy meeting between Alexa and her hired protection. "You take them all out, then you can climb out and I'll win," she could be heard saying. "I'm going to wait over here." She walked over the corner of the ring, got under the bottom rope and clung onto it for dear life. Again, there were some cheers of approval from the fans mixed in with the laughter.

Lucy shook her head in bewilderment, then went about her business, joining in with one of the ongoing battles.

With all of the participants now having joined the match, and all of those remaining in it likely candidates to get the win, the tension was mounting. The fans seemed to mainly be supporting Bayley and Charlotte.

Nia Jax managed a brief rally, but all that seemed to do was convince the other women that they should team up and take her out. Bayley was the first to attack, connecting with a dropkick that barely seemed to effect the much bigger woman. Paige ran in next, hitting a clothesline which hardly staggered Nia.

Three more competitors formed a line now, ready to take their turn to try and knock Nia off her feet. Next up was Sasha Banks, who ran in and delivered a double knee strike to Nia's stomach, staggering her a little more.

The noise in the arena rose, given whose turn it was next. Charlotte stepped forward, encouraging the crowd to cheer her with a quick hand gesture. They responded, and she ran in as fast as she could, delivering a Big Boot that would surely have knocked any other woman clean out. Nia, on the other hand, just fell back against the ropes. Still, that was the job half done, and there was one more woman to come.

Lucy Thorne, in contrast to Charlotte, wasted no time on ceremony or the approval of the crowd. She simply charged at Nia and hit her with the hardest clothesline she could manage, sending her over the top rope. Lucy followed the elimination up with some choice words, while the crowd cheered.

Lucy turned around, a little too late. Charlotte had seen an opportunity, and had already been running at her. Yet another Big Boot connected; this one, to everyone's shock, blasted Lucy clean off her feet and over the top rope.

"Oh my God!" Saxton yelled. "Lucy Thorne is eliminated! Thorne took out Nia Jax, but she made the mistake of leaving her back turned to Charlotte for a little too long."

Still hiding in the corner of the ring, Alexa had seen what had just transpired. Her protection had been eliminated, and that meant her entire game plan for winning the match was gone. Wide-eyed in shock, Alexa crawled out of the corner, leaning through the bottom rope to look down at Lucy, who seemed to be out cold on the floor. In anguish, Alexa covered her face with her hands. Then she became aware of a pair of feet standing next to her.

Slowly, nervously, Alexa turned around, to see all of the four other women left in the ring surrounding her, looking down at her. "Wait a minute, guys," she said, raising her hands defensively.

Paige shook her head emphatically, signalling that trying to beg off was not going to work. Acting as one, Paige, Bayley, Sasha and Charlotte picked Alexa up, leaving her powerless to resist.

"No! No!" Alexa screamed before she was dropped over the top rope. Much to the delight of the fans, she had just lost her title.

"We're guaranteed to have a new Raw Women's Champion," Cole said.

On the outside of the ring, Lucy was just getting to her feet, recovering from the tremendous Big Boot that had eliminated her.

"What were you doing?" Alexa screamed at her, furious to have been let down, as she saw it. "You were supposed to make sure I won!"

Lucy shrugged her shoulders and seemed to start offering some kind of explanation. Furious, Alexa wasn't having a word of it, and slapped Lucy hard in the face. The fans unanimously made an, "Oooh," sound, knowing that a line had just been crossed.

Alexa seemed to realise that too, judging by the look of fury on Lucy's face. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, she ran for the entrance ramp as fast as she could. Lucy set off after her, following her all the way to the back.

"I think we've just seen the end of the business relationship between Lucy Thorne and Alexa Bliss," Saxton commented.

"Oh! Sasha Banks just eliminated Paige!" Cole called out, diverting people's attention back to the ring. A replay showed that Paige had run at Sasha, who had been playing possum, standing against the ropes. A back body drop had gotten the job done. Three women remained in the ring.

Seeing what her friend had just managed to do, Bayley exchanged a high five with Sasha. Taking everyone by surprise, Sasha suddenly grabbed Bayley and threw her over the top rope. There were howls of disapproval from the crowd, but as Sasha celebrated, they realised that Bayley had actually managed to hang on with one hand, and was not eliminated. She was able to get herself back safely onto the apron, then re-enter the ring under the bottom rope.

Sasha, thinking there was only one opponent left, had gone over to the corner where Charlotte was down, having taken a Paige Turner just before the returning English woman had been eliminated. Now it was Sasha's turn to be surprised. To a rapturous reaction, Bayley ran over and bundled her over the top rope, sending her crashing to the floor. Her treachery had come back to haunt her very quickly indeed.

"We're down to two! Come on, Bayley!" Cole encouraged.

"Bayley needs to do it for Raw," Graves said. "We can't have Charlotte taking the Raw Women's Championship to Smackdown."

The fans were now right behind Bayley, even though they had also previously cheered Charlotte as well. Exhausted, Bayley had a hard time getting Charlotte up.

"The fans are willing Bayley on here," Saxton said. "She's managed to get Charlotte up, but can she get her over the top rope?" It was certainly a struggle, but slowly but surely, Bayley got Charlotte's body over the top rope. However, realising what was happening, Charlotte did all she could to defend herself and wrapped her arms around Bayley's upper body. The two women were now entwined with each other, in a very awkward position, half straddling the top rope.

That was when another figure appeared in the background, running over to them.

"Wait a minute!" Cole yelled as the fans cried out in dismay, realising what was going to happen.

Emma shovelled Bayley over the top rope, sending both her and Charlotte falling to the floor.

"Emma! Emma wins the Women's Royal Rumble!" Saxton shouted at the top of his voice as the bell rang and her music began to play.

"Where did she come from?" Cole asked incredulously.

"I don't think… Emma was never eliminated," Graves said. "She must have been lying in wait on the outside the whole time!"

Shocked didn't come close to describing the reaction from the fans as Emma began to celebrate her victory, not the least bit embarrassed by the way she had achieved it. The referee handed the title belt to her, and she stood in the centre of the ring, holding it aloft, flaunting it in front of everyone whose hopes she had just shattered with her unlikely victory.

Jojo confirmed the result with an announcement: "The winner of the first ever Women's Royal Rumble, and the new Raw Women's Champion… Emma!"


	16. Chapter 16

Alexa sighed contentedly after she took a healthy drink of the cocktail Dean had just bought her. "That's so nice," she said.

It was Monday night, and they were sitting at the bar in their hotel. With the Royal Rumble and the following night's Raw episode now out of the way, they had a couple of days of much needed rest ahead of them.

"I can't remember ever wanting some time off as much as this," Alexa said. The exhaustion she felt was not physical - she had hardly had to do anything in the rumble match and had only had to take a beat down for a minute or so on Raw before being rescued by Lucy Thorne - it was her mind that needed the break. There had been so much stress lately, primarily with Renee, but also with most of the other women briefly snubbing her.

Dean downed a quarter of his glass of beer. It promised to be the first of many. "I know what you mean," he said after setting the glass down on the bar. "There's been a lot of crap flying around lately. It's worth it, though," he added with a grin.

His reward was one of Alexa's mind-blowing smiles. "Did you almost say something romantic, Dean Ambrose?"

"I think I did. Almost."

"I'll take that," Alexa took another drink, then said, "I'm looking forward to staying at your place." The next day, she would be visiting Dean's house in Las Vegas for the first time. Their previous days off together had been spent at her small apartment in Orlando.

"I'm looking forward to taking you there. Remember there's still some of Renee's shit there; that's the only problem. I've put it all in one of the bedrooms, ready to pack it up and ship it to her."

"I can help you with that if you like?" she suggested.

Surprised, Dean gave her a curious expression over his beer glass. "I couldn't ask you to do that."

"You didn't, I offered."

"Fair enough," he conceded. "But why would you want to help me with her stuff? I thought it being there would make you uncomfortable?" He watched Alexa drinking through her straw, unsure what she was going to say next.

"All the more reason to get rid of it," she pointed out. "You want her out of your life, and so do I, right?"

"Right. Of course," Dean said without any doubt. He figured she might still be feeling a little insecure after the altercation with Finn and Renee in that parking garage the week before. If so, it was understandable. Wanting to reassure her, he said, "If you want to help me get rid of her stuff, that's what we'll do. Getting it gone will be good for me. After what they did the other night, I don't care if I ever see either of them again."

Alexa felt happy to hear him say that. It also reminded her of something that had occurred to her a few days earlier. "Hey, you know Renee said she was the one who saw us in the club that night?"

"Yeah?" he said after another hit from his glass. Beer number one was already nearly finished.

"Well, no one goes to a club by themselves, do they? I bet she was there with Finn. And what do you think the odds are that they happened to see us together on their first date? Sounds very coincidental to me, and that makes it very unlikely. I think you might have been right about her cheating, then going crazy because you cheated. If I'm right, it played into her hands big time when you ended it, then she saw us not long afterwards; she could paint us as the bad guys and get away clean with what she'd been doing."

Everything she had said was pure speculation, but it rang true with Dean. He would never have suspected Renee of cheating while they had been together, but then she probably would never have suspected him, either. What he did know was that he had seen another side of her since they had split up. As for Finn Balor, that guy had always been an asshole. "I can see you being right," he said. "Fuck 'em, they're welcome to each other. We're together and we're happy, that's all that matters to me."

"That's all that matters to me, too," Alexa said, giving his hand a little squeeze. It was a gesture that Dean found curiously affectionate. "Why do you and Finn hate each other, anyway? I never knew that was a thing until all this started."

"I can't even remember," Dean said offhandedly. "It probably started with some stupid argument over something small and the hatchet never got buried. Over time, I guess it just got worse. You know how things can go like that with some people."

Honestly, Alexa didn't really know. Until recently, she had gotten along with everyone she worked with. Not doing so was something she didn't like at all. Rather than say that and risk the conversation turning awkward, she decided to change the subject. "Hopefully they'll stop booking me to look so weak now that Twisted Thorne is a thing. I get why they were doing it, to sell the idea of Lucy protecting me, but it was kind of lame from my point of view."

Dean drained his beer, then signalled to the bar tender for another. Alexa's cocktail was still half full, so he didn't ask if she wanted anything. "It was funny shit," he countered. "The way you went under the bottom rope in the rumble had me giggling in the locker room. I like the way you hide behind her, too."

Now that he had said it, Alexa realised that she had never heard him giggle at anything before. She would have liked to have seen it. "I know, but I don't just want to be a comedy act. Twisted Thorne should be a serious threat in the tag division."

"Trust me, you will be. If there's one thing being with Lucy guarantees you, it's favourable booking. Steph's tongue is so far up her ass it's unreal. If she wasn't married to Hunter and Lucy wasn't with Seth, I'd be sure they were fucking each other."

Alexa raised her eyebrows. "There's an image."

A mischievous grin appeared on Dean's face. "You like a bit of girl on girl, huh?"

"No," Alexa said, rolling her eyes. "But I'm sure you wouldn't mind it."

Dean shrugged as his second beer arrived. "I'm a guy."

"And all guys are perverts," Alexa said as if she was finishing the sentence for him.

Dean just grunted a laugh and started work on his beer. Alexa followed his example and had some more of her cocktail. Keeping up with him wasn't going to be possible, but getting drunk was an appealing prospect for sure.

"That was a nice kid Lucy was walking around with earlier," Dean said after a moment. "Fucking weird seeing her being so good with her, actually."

"I said something similar to Sasha," Alexa said. "Lucy is probably the last person in our locker room I would pick out as a mother, but she did a really great job. I think it helped that it was someone not too young, and mature for her age. Lucy actually flat-out told me she hates babies."

Dean grunted another laugh. "That sounds more like what I'd expect from her."

"Lucy took us into the production office before we came to your locker room."

"Really?" Dean grinned. "The kid must have shit a brick when she saw Vince and Hunter. And Steph, come to that."

"Her name's Clementine, Dean," Alexa said. "Yeah, she seemed daunted by it. They were good with her, though. I could tell she really enjoyed herself."

"Seth was good with her as well. I was ribbing him after you went that he's going to be talking Lucy into trying for a baby before long."

"Aww, can you imagine?" Alexa said, her eyes widening in excitement. "A little Seth or Lucy would be so cute."

"I think that's enough talk about babies," Dean said, suddenly regretting bringing up the subject and worried that Alexa might start wanting a baby of her own. As unlikely as that was right now, it was one of the main reasons he had decided to bail on Renee. Settling down and having kids was not his thing at all, and he knew it never would be.

"Alright," Alexa said delicately, sensing his change in mood. Her mind immediately retreated to the subject of work for something to talk about. "The fans were right behind you towards the end of your rumble match. Being booked to make the final three is not a small thing."

Dean seemed a lot less impressed than she was. "It's only who wins that matters, and they gave it to AJ. I can't say that's a bad decision; he'll put on a great match at 'Mania with whoever they have him go up against. But I would have liked to have won, of course. That's one problem with being on a team like The Shield; you hardly ever get good singles opportunities."

"You wouldn't trade a singles title run for breaking up the team though, surely?" she asked. Knowing how close the three guys and Lucy were, it seemed inconceivable that they would split.

"No way," Dean said after his latest drink of beer. "But even so, it would be nice if one of us got a run as Universal Champion at some point. Even Lucy has never gotten the Women's Championship since she got the call up from NXT. That's really remarkable, considering."

"I'm sure there will be a time when…" Alexa let her voice trail off. From where they were sitting at the bar, they were able to see the entrance. Of all people, Finn and Renee had just walked in.

"What?" Dean asked, turning to follow her eye line.

"Dean, don't do anything, please?" Alexa asked quickly, imagining a fight kicking off again. Even if it was only a verbal one, it was stress that she didn't need.

"I won't," Dean said. He returned his attention to Alexa and his beer, sipping some of it to calm himself down. For her part, Alexa set about finishing her cocktail. If it came to it, she was ready to suggest leaving. She realised that Finn and Renee were approaching them. Fearing the worst, she took in a deep breath. It was something of a relief when no words were exchanged directly, but there was still an attempt by the Irishman to bait Dean.

"There's a table over there, babe," he said to Renee when they were walking right behind where Dean and Alexa were sitting, putting emphasis on the last word.

Alexa put her hand on Dean's arm in a gesture meant to tell him to let it go. To her surprise, he chose to do exactly that. He picked up his beer and said, "Drink up, we're leaving."

"Are you sure?" she asked instinctively, despite it being exactly what she wanted to do.

"It's either that or I smack him one, so we'd better go," Dean said. He downed the rest of his beer in one hit, while Alexa set about finishing off her own drink.

"Come on then, let's go," she said once she was done.

After a quick check that he had all of his possessions on him, Dean led the way towards the exit, making sure to take Alexa's hand, and also not to look in the direction of Renee and Finn. He was sure they were watching, so he wanted them to see him take her hand. That would show them he had no problem with, or interest in their shit show of a relationship, the main point of which appeared to be needling him.

"Thanks for not going off at them," Alexa said once they were out in the lobby, heading for the elevators.

"They're not worth it," Dean said. "If they've got nothing better to do than trying to piss me off, that shows how pathetic they are. They're welcome to each other. That's how I should have looked at it the other day, instead of losing my shit."

"Come here," Alexa said happily, reaching up to kiss him. "I'm happy we ignored them and left; it shows we're the bigger people. Hopefully they realise that, although I doubt it."

"Forget them," he said as he pressed the button to call an elevator. It turned out that there was already one on the ground floor, and the doors slid open. Dean led the way inside. "From now on, I say we completely ignore them. We've gone through some shit, but we're moving on. Things are only going to get better for us from here."

Alexa laughed. "Don't say things like that, it's foreshadowing!"

They proceeded upstairs to their room and enjoyed more drink there instead, not knowing how accurate her words would prove to be.


	17. Chapter 17

When she had arrived at Dean's house for the first time, Alexa had been impressed not only with the size of the place, but also with the neatness of the interior and finesse of the decoration. That was until it had occurred to her that Renee was probably the one responsible for that, albeit with a housekeeper to keep the place up to standard. At least she had been granted the satisfying opportunity to help Dean to pack away the possessions that belonged to his ex, and had arranged for a shipping company to pick them up and send them to her parents' address. With that done, Renee was out of his life for good, apart from the pathetic attempts she and Finn kept making to get reactions out of him, of course. Alexa considered getting Renee's stuff out of the house to be an important milestone in their relationship, and would therefore be glad once the shipping company showed up the next day to collect the boxes.

For his part, Dean had been happy to welcome his girl to his home. It was lucky that he hadn't bothered to let the housekeeper Renee had hired go. If he had been left to his own devices, Alexa would have walked into something a lot less presentable. Tidiness and cleaning were not exactly things he counted among his strengths. He had at least done his best to cook a meal for her; something he didn't do often. It had been a simple affair: marinated chicken breasts with salad, but he had been pleased with how it had turned out.

"Thank you, Dean. That was very nice," Alexa said when she put her knife and fork down on her empty plate.

"No problem, darlin'. I'm not Gordon Ramsey, but I do my best." As usual, Dean had finished eating before her. "Let's go chill in the living room," he suggested. It was Tuesday night, he remembered as they walked out of the dining room, and they were just in time to catch the start of Smackdown.

Alexa settled down on the couch next to her man, snuggling up to him and resting her head on his shoulder. She had a pleasant surprise in mind for him; the only question was how to go about it.

Sensing something was on her mind, Dean drew the wrong conclusion. "I hope you're feeling at home here?" he asked, worried that Renee's past presence was unnerving her, despite what she had told him to the contrary.

"Of course," Alexa replied confidently. "It's a lovely house, and in any case, I'd feel at home wherever you were."

Hearing her say something so adorable made Dean's stomach flutter; not something he was accustomed to, since he wasn't a particularly emotional guy. "That's really sweet," he said, giving her a kiss.

Dean seemed to be content to sit cuddled up on the couch watching Smackdown. Most of the time, Alexa would have been happy to do exactly that, but right then, what she wanted to do was make love to her man in his house for the first time. Who knew, at some point in the future it might become their home. She decided to make an excuse to get up, and use that excuse to surprise him. "I need to use the bathroom," she said, wriggling out from the arm that he had wrapped around her.

Making her way upstairs, Alexa first headed to the master bedroom, not the bathroom. She picked up her case and set it on the bed. Shuffling through the contents, she found what she was looking for: the bag from the lingerie store Dean had visited. Inside was the red PVC outfit he had been dying to see her wear for him. Not wanting him to get his own way too easily, she had made him wait for a time of her choosing. Their first night together in the house seemed like just the right occasion.

Alexa carried the bag into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her. She put the toilet lid down, then unpacked the outfit and set the items on top of it while she got undressed. There was no doubt in her mind that Dean would think she looked incredible in it; she just hoped that she would feel sexy herself once she had put it on. The night would go so much better if she felt happy and comfortable in what she was wearing.

A couple of minutes later, she was standing in front of the mirror in the bra and panties. She smiled because they fitted her perfectly. When she thought about it now, it seemed logical that expensive lingerie would be designed with comfort in mind regardless of the material that was used. Happily, she liked the way she looked. If only there was time to put on some red eyeliner to complete the look.

Lastly, before she could go downstairs and make Dean's night, she had the gloves to put on. It wasn't as difficult a task as she had imaged; the smooth material easily sliding over her skin, seemingly designed to stretch slightly to fit her both tightly and comfortably over their entire length, from upper arm to the ends of her fingers. Somehow, she saw in the mirror, they provided quite the finishing touch to her look. There was no doubt about it, she decided, she was dressed to be the one in charge this time. She felt empowered somehow by what she was wearing.

Last time she had tried to take charge in the bedroom, Dean had ignored her and reasserted himself as the dominant one, even going so far as to use her bra to gag her – an experience she had surprisingly enjoyed, although it had been very frustrating. Enjoyable or not, he would not be allowed to do something like that tonight. She intended to establish a firm ground rule with him that when she was wearing this outfit, she was the boss. Smiling to herself in the mirror, she decided that she was ready.

"You okay?" Dean asked when he heard Alexa's footsteps out in the hallway, coming back to the living room. She had been gone for longer than he would have expected for a bathroom visit, leaving him to wonder if he had screwed the meal up and she had gone to be sick.

"I'm fine," Alexa said, walking into the room to find him still lounging on the couch, back to her, watching Smackdown. "I just had to get changed," she added in a more sultry voice as she approached him. Before he could respond, she crouched slightly and leaned over the back of the couch, wrapping one arm around his chest and stroking his cheek with her other hand, making sure that he realised right away that she had the PVC gloves on. "I thought you might like what I chose."

"I think I will," Dean said, failing to conceal his excitement. He attempted to turn around to see her in all her glory.

Reacting quickly, she realised that was her moment to take charge. She grabbed his shoulder and roughly forced him back into his sitting positon.

"What are you…"

"Sshhh," Alexa said, covering his mouth with her hand. Remembering what he had done with her bra made her want to give him a taste of his own medicine, if only briefly. "Be quiet and listen to me. If I'm going to wear this outfit for you, we're going to talk about rules."

"Whatever you want," Dean tried to say. He had never had a woman assert herself like this with him before, and it was turning him on big time.

"Shut up," Alexa ordered in response to his muffled sounds behind her hand. "I'll take my hand away when you agree to my rules and not before. They're very simple rules: you do what I say, and only what I say, when I say it, with no backchat. And that includes staying right where you are, without turning round unless I say you can. What I'm telling you is, in this outfit, I'm the boss; your boss. Is that clear?"

Dean was only too happy to nod his head in acceptance of those terms.

"Good boy," she said in the most dominant voice she could manage as she took her hand away from his mouth and went back to gently stroking his cheek. Since he often said good girl to her in intimate situations, she figured it was fair game to turn that around on him. "You like to call me Goddess, so that's what you can do tonight. That's going to be another rule."

"I just want to see you in that outfit, darlin'," Dean said longingly. His body was in overdrive already. He realised she knew that, and that was why she was toying with him. That fact alone heightened the experience.

"Not darlin', Goddess," Alexa admonished him, stopping stroking his cheek. She was really getting into the role she had taken on, finding it so empowering and also an incredible turn on. Having control over him, knowing how much he liked to have it over her, was such a rush. She had decided that he would get no sign of affection while he was disobeying her. "I already told you, I decide what's going to happen and when. Did you not understand the rules?"

"I understood," he said, having to fight to stop himself just grabbing hold of her and hauling her over the back of the couch onto his lap. He didn't want to risk disobeying the so-called rules, though, in case she refused to ever wear the PVC lingerie again to punish him.

"Good, then don't make me correct you again." Alexa wished she had something to hit him with to punish him when he got out of line. Maybe next time, she told herself. She stroked his cheek again, slowly moving her fingers over his stubble, then ran them over his lips. Her other arm was still wrapped around his upper chest, keeping him in place without actively restraining him. "How do you like the feel of my gloves?"

"They're very nice," Dean said, enjoying the feel of the incredibly smooth material against his skin, as well as the little crinkling sounds her hands caused as they moved.

"They're very nice, what?" Alexa demanded, firmness coming back into her tone.

"Goddess," Dean added compliantly.

"That's better," she whispered right into his ear. "Tell me, how badly is it frustrating you that you can't see me right now?"

"Really bad," he admitted honestly. "Like, really, really bad."

"That's good, because I'm enjoying making you wait. You're literally squirming, Dean. And from what I can see, you're very hard."

"Very hard," he assured her. "Trust me, the fucking I could give you right now…"

Alexa gently covered his mouth again while tutting in his ear. "I didn't ask you what you could do right now. I'll be deciding what you do and when. What you can do right now is convince me of how badly you want to see me wearing this outfit for you. If you do a good job, I'll walk around in front of you. If not…" She covered his eyes with her other hand. "I'll have to find something to blindfold you with and you won't get to see me. So, make a good job of it." She uncovered his eyes and mouth, allowing him to talk.

"I want to see you so badly, I don't think I can even put it into words," Dean breathed. "I bet you look like the sexiest thing alive. Just thinking about it is driving me crazy. Like you said, I can hardly sit still. Just come around here where I can see you, please."

Happy that he couldn't see the big grin on her face, Alexa decided to accept what he had said as good enough. Not only was that probably the closest Dean Ambrose was going to come to begging for something, no matter what it was, she was also tired of hiding behind him. Having more than done the job of turning him on and making him wait, she now wanted to move things forward.

"Okay, I guess that's good enough," she said with real authority in her voice. Slowly, she walked around the couch and stood in front of him, proud to show herself off in the sexy attire. The look on his face reminded her of a dog that could see its owner had a bone and was about to throw it for him.

"Fuckin' beautiful," he said softly, looking her up and down. He could not wait for the sex that he knew was coming, although he knew he would be made to.

Alexa tutted him again and wagged a finger. "You gave your opinion before I asked for it. We're still not working within the rules."

Dean decided to comply with her fully and let her completely take charge, reasoning that he shouldn't knock something until he had tried it. After all, he could reassert himself next time. "Sorry, Goddess," he said. "I'm still getting used to the rules."

"That's okay," Alexa said sweetly, happy to see the change in his demeanour. She had won the battle of wills. Now it was all about making sure they both enjoyed the experience to the fullest extent. "Do what I say from now on and I won't punish you, I promise."

"Whatever you say," he agreed.

"Get up," she ordered him.

Dean complied, somehow holding himself back from grabbing hold of her when they were only inches apart.

"Upstairs," she instructed, pointing.

Body still on fire, Dean led the way up the stairs, heading for the bedroom without needing to be told to do so.

"Lie down on the bed," was the next order Alexa issued as she walked into the room behind him.

Dean did as she said, lying down on his back, looking up at her as she stood over him. She really did look like the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Looking down at him, Alexa smiled. She knew he would like his reward for obeying her. She walked around to the bottom of the bed then crawled up it, lying between his legs, which he opened wider to give her the space.

When she started to unbutton his jeans, Dean knew what was coming. "Oh, baby," he said in excitement, lifting his head to look at her.

Alexa responded by raising her eyebrows, questioning the fact that he appeared to be stepping out of line. She also raised a finger for silence.

"Sorry, Goddess," he said.

"Lie back down," she ordered sternly.

Only after he obeyed did she finish the job of pulling down his jeans and then his boxers. He was still rock hard in anticipation. "Mmmm," she sighed in appreciation. Then, knowing that he liked the feel of the gloves on his skin, she decided to start working on him with her hands rather than her mouth.

Dean loved every sensation he was getting as she worked his shaft slowly with her soft, smooth gloved fingers. She had a real delicate touch that was rare, in his experience. He felt himself quivering as he fought to stay silent, afraid that she would stop if he made a sound, since she had insisted on silence. He had figured out that she was doing that to get revenge after he had gagged her last time she had tried to take charge of him. After this performance, there was more where that had come from. Right now, though, he had to somehow stay silent. He closed his eyes, hoping that would help somehow.

Alexa could tell by the way his body reacted to what she was doing that it wouldn't be much longer before he climaxed. She wanted to finish the job with her mouth. Shifting her position, she first started licking his shaft, attacking it like it was an ice cream cone that she was eating on a hot sunny day, needing to get it done before it melted.

"Oh, God," Dean said faintly, unable to hold it in.

"Silence," Alexa hissed, still working on him with one hand. Then, now that she was sure it was time to finish him off, she took him in her mouth, pushing his foreskin back with her teeth and nibbling lightly on his shaft. Her hand continued to work its magic, and she let out soft little moans of pleasure, knowing that he would feel the vibrations of her voice on his cock.

Sure enough, her technique made sure that didn't take long at all for him to reach his peak. With a couple of loud grunts and strong convulsions he released himself onto her mouth.

When he felt Alexa remove her mouth from his cock, Dean lifted his head to look at her. She had his cum dribbling down her chin and a sultry smile on her face. It was a truly amazing sight. "Thank you, Goddess," he panted in his most submissive tone yet.

Alexa swallowed hard, knowing that she had him in the palm of her hand, not only on this night, but any other night she chose to put on her Goddess outfit.


	18. Chapter 18

More than a month had passed since the Royal Rumble. Thankfully for Dean, the ridiculous drama that had been going on around that time had largely subsided. As he had predicted all along, the other women on the Raw roster had quickly moved on from bitching about Alexa as soon as the next topic for gossip had come along. He wasn't particularly surprised that Renee and Finn still occasionally tried to use their relationship to try and bait him for a reaction, but he and Alexa had both risen above that by this point, thinking that all their attempted antagonists were doing was embarrassing themselves.

Dean and Alexa's own relationship was going from strength to strength, the more time they spent together. Neither of them had actually said the L word to each other yet, but Dean knew what he felt for her, and was able to tell that she felt much the same way about him. It was only a matter of time before they crossed that particular bridge, he was sure. Slightly further into the future, he was considering the possibility of inviting her to move into his place in Vegas. It made sense, considering that they spent most of their days off there anyway.

As far as work was concerned, Wrestlemania season was now in full swing, with the February pay-per-view out of the way. Dean and Seth were happy with the role they were going to have in the biggest event of the year: competing in a fatal four way match for the Raw Tag Team Championships. They were hopefully that they would be given the win, as it had been a while since either of them had held a title.

The Twisted Thorne team was also going to be competing for gold at Wrestlemania, when the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships were up for grabs for the first time. After a tournament to determine the two teams who would do battle, which had culminated at February's pay-per-view, Twisted Thorne would take on the team of Paige and Becky Lynch. It promised to be quite the contest.

For all of those reasons, Dean and Alexa were in high spirits when they arrived at the arena for March's first episode of Raw. When the time came for them to part ways and head for their locker rooms, Alexa reached up on tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the lips. "I'll see you later," she said.

"See you later, darlin'." Dean gave her a kiss of his own and surprised her by giving one of her butt cheeks a little squeeze.

Alexa squealed in surprise then playfully slapped him on the shoulder. "I'll get you back for that."

"Bring it on," Dean said with a chuckle as he turned and headed for the locker room, a smile on his face. It was still there a minute later when he walked into The Shield's locker room. Seth and Roman were already there. "What's up?" he greeted them.

"Not much. How are you?" Roman replied. He was standing at his locker, sorting out his stuff, clearly having only just arrived himself.

Seth, meanwhile, was sitting on the bench in front of his things. Looking up, he just said, "Hey."

"What's up with you?" Dean asked him, sensing from his tone that something was on his friend's mind.

"It's that obvious, huh?" Seth asked with a grimace.

"Uh, yeah," Dean said dryly as he walked over to the locker beside Seth and put his case on the bench.

"You haven't had a fight with Lucy, have you?" Roman asked with some concern. Knowing Lucy's fragile temper, he imagined their domestic disagreements could get quite fierce.

"No, it's nothing like that. Lucy's fine," Seth said quickly.

"So what is it then?" Dean asked, sitting down next to him.

"Do you remember the girl Lucy and I invited to the Rumble?"

"Of course. Your neighbour's daughter or something?" Roman recalled.

"Clementine," Dean added.

"Right," Seth said to both of them. "Well, when Lucy and I went home on Saturday we went round there to see them, and we found out that Clementine's dad was killed in a car accident last Thursday."

"Oh shit," Dean said. "That's awful, man. The kid must be heartbroken."

"Just a bit," Seth sighed. "And that's not the worst of it."

Roman had stopped arranging his clothes, so that he could pay full attention to the conversation. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Clem's mom has a brain tumour, an inoperable one. She was given six months to live in December. That's one of the reasons we hooked them up with tickets for the Rumble: so that she could come and see Clem have a great time while she was still well enough to travel."

"Fucking hell," Dean said under his breath. "So the dad's dead and the mom's on her way out. What's going to happen to Clementine?"

Seth didn't react to the apparent lack of sensitivity in Dean's words, knowing that it was just the way he communicated, and he meant no offense by it. "That's an even bigger problem. There's only one living immediate family member, an uncle, and he's doing twenty years for fraud. Even before that happened, Clem's parents had nothing to do with the guy."

"So there's no family to take her. That's really rough," Roman said, shaking his head as he imagined his own daughter being left in that awful situation.

"She'll have to go into foster care," Dean said.

"There is one other alternative," Seth said. "Her mom asked Lucy and I if we would adopt her. She's desperate for Clementine not to go into the foster system, but we're the only people she knows who could possibly take her, assuming we were willing to."

"Really?" Dean asked, surprised by the revelation. "What did you say?"

"We were surprised, to say the least, as I'm sure you can imagine. We said we'd have to talk it over and let her know. I mean, what else could we say? It's a huge deal, Dean. It's definitely not something we could yes or no to right then and there. We're talking about a child's life here. We're talking about a responsibility that will be ours for the rest of our lives if we adopt her. Not only that, there are practical considerations like our jobs to take into account. We obviously couldn't be there most days with Clem, so we would need to hire a nanny to care for her day to day. We'd need to decorate a room for her. There's so much stuff to think about; the more you think, the more you come up with. Rome, you know what I'm talking about."

"Definitely," Roman agreed. "Being a dad is hard work in a lot of ways, but boy is it worth it. Of course, our situation was a lot different to what you're talking about. We got to make the decision to try for a baby, then we had the length of the pregnancy to get ready for the responsibility of being parents and to get the house ready and things like that."

"Honesty, then, what do you think about it?" Dean asked. "I know you said in the past you were disappointed Lucy was so against having a baby at any point."

"Yeah, she has always been adamant about that," Seth said, raising his eyebrows for a second. "The way she put it was that getting pregnant would be the end of her career, and she wasn't prepared to do that. Plus she couldn't face the idea of the sleepless nights and the constant crying and screaming a baby brings. Funnily enough, she did say that the only thing she would consider in the future was adopting an older child. And now here we are in this situation."

"So what are you going to do?" Dean pressed.

"Dean, come on," Roman said, admonishing him to back off a bit.

"No, it's okay," Seth said. "As I'm sure you've figured out, Lucy and I did a lot of talking about it over the weekend. We've not given an answer to Diana yet – that's Clem's mom – and we're going to have to talk about it all again before we do, but on balance we're more likely to say yes than no. We both really like Clem; as you've already seen, she's a great kid. We had already talked about maybe adopting one day, as I just said, and perhaps most of all, we don't think we could live with ourselves if we left her to go into the fostering system and end up with Christ knows who. I know I would feel so guilty. I just don't think I could do that."

Dean could totally see it all from Lucy's point of view, given his own intense dislike of the idea of having a baby to deal with. With that being said, he was still excited at the prospect of Seth taking on something as big as an adoption, and could see himself in the future role as uncle Dean. That was an exciting thought. "So you're possibly going to be a dad?" he asked, before pausing for a half second, thinking that maybe that wasn't the right way to put it. "In a way, at least," he added to cover himself.

"Yeah, in a way," Seth said with a note of caution. "If the adoption does happen, we won't be referring to ourselves as Clem's mom and dad. She obviously knows that's not the case, and by then she will have lost both her real parents. Maybe in time she might come to look at us as mom and dad, but we certainly can't force that on her. It would be her decision to make in her own time, if she ever made it."

"I was going to say the same thing," Roman agreed. "Personally, I think you'd make a really great dad, whether you were called dad or not. Clementine would be lucky to have you. And I'm very proud of you and Lucy for stepping up for a kid in need like this."

"Thank you," Seth said, fighting a lump in his throat caused by the humbling words. "Nothing has been decided yet," he reminded them. "We're going to have more thinking and more talking to do before it's definite."

"We understand," Dean said. "I'm with Rome, though. You would make a very good dad. Since I've known you, you've been a real brother to me."

Seth slapped him on the shoulder. "Thanks, man."

Roman sat down on his own part of the bench and laughed. "You know what's weird?"

"What?" Seth asked.

"When Lucy was walking around with Clementine that night, I remember thinking that they looked almost like mother and daughter. I laughed at the thought then, but Lucy was so good with her, it was a nice surprise. Clem really loved spending time with her, too. You could tell that from a mile away."

"Yeah, there's a side to her that even you guys don't get to see. She would be an amazing mom to Clem. I have more confidence in her than I have in myself, if I'm honest."

"It's only natural to feel that way," Roman said. "But I have total confidence in you both. Don't forget I'm here if I can help in any way, or if you need advice. Having said that, I think you'll manage just fine."

Dean had been thinking the situation through for himself while they talked. "The grief is going to be the hard thing to deal with. Losing both of your parents in a matter of months would be bad enough for anyone, let alone a kid. Plus she'll be trying to get used to living with you guys. Assuming you decide to…" he began to cover himself again.

"You don't have to keep doing that," Seth said with a little smile. "We're discussing it assuming that we adopt her."

Dean was right, of course. Clementine would be feeling distraught at the loss of her father, and it would get worse in the not too distant future. It was going to be such a hard thing for a child of that age to come to terms with. That was another reason he couldn't imagine leaving to the fostering system. How could she go through that with no one to care for her? It didn't bear thinking about.

With a deep breath, Seth drew a line under the conversation. "So, that's my news. I don't know if Lucy will tell Alexa or not. Either way, keep it to yourselves, guys."

"Of course," Roman said while Dean nodded his agreement.

They moved on to talking about other things for a bit, until Seth announced that he was going to fetch some coffee from catering.

"I didn't see that coming," Dean said after the door closed behind him. Needless to say, he was talking about the proposed adoption. "What do you make of it? Do you think they'll end up saying yes?"

"I don't doubt it for a minute," Roman said emphatically. "They're good people, and it's the right thing to do. Assuming they do, it's going to be up to us to do anything and everything we can to help them."

Dean nodded serious. "Absolutely. Alexa and I both will."


	19. Chapter 19

Wrestlemania 34 was a matter of hours away. Alexa was going to be making her second appearance at WWE's biggest event, hoping to feature a lot more prominently than she had done the previous year in the mess that had been the Smackdown Women's Championship match. Thankfully, she had been booked a lot better since she had moved to Raw, and even more so since Twisted Thorne had officially formed as a team.

Contrary to some people's expectations, the new team hadn't turned out to be the dominant heels that had originally been intended. Instead, as time had gone on, the fans had grown more intent on cheering them, particularly Alexa's cowardly antics, which nearly always required Lucy to protect her as a result. Rather than rage inducing, those segments were proving to be the most popular of all. There was no getting around the fact that people loved to watch Twisted Thorne.

Off-screen, the friendship between the two ladies had also gone from strength to strength. Dean had told Alexa there was another side to Lucy when you got to know her, and she now knew it was true. Once you got past the abrupt and sarcastic front, there was a loyal, caring person underneath.

Nothing emphasised that further than the fact that Lucy and Seth were going to adopt a poor little ten year old girl, Clementine, who would otherwise soon have been orphaned when her mother succumbed to an inoperable brain tumour. Her father had tragically been killed in a car accident; hit head-on by a drunk driver.

As sad as the situation was - and Alexa couldn't help feeling heartbroken for Clementine, losing her parents at such a young age - she was happy for Lucy and Seth. There was no doubt in her mind that they would make great parents; exactly what Clem would need in her life.

Today would be the second time Clementine came backstage at a WWE event, but the first since her dad's death and the decision about her adoption. On her first visit at the Royal Rumble, she had been a real hit with everyone in the locker room. Sweet, polite and mature for her age, it was impossible not to like her. Smiling, Alexa also remembered that she was Clem's favourite superstar.

Everyone in the women's locker room - now with the former Raw and Smackdown rosters united - had been cautioned ahead of time not to refer to Lucy as Clementine's mom, or Seth as her dad. Once her real mom passed they would become her legal guardians, but that was a very different thing to being her parents, for the child especially. It was crucial not to upset her by carelessly saying the wrong thing.

With perfect timing, the locker room door opened and Lucy walked in, with Clementine just behind her. The African-American girl was wearing a Twisted Thorne shirt and cap, with a small pig tail sticking out of the bottom of it at either side. Alexa smiled at the sight. She considered the merch for her new team to be some of the best out there currently. The logo consisted of Lucy's thorn logo twisted around Alexa's old logo, with the background being a picture of Alexa standing on Lucy's shoulders, while she in turn stood on the middle ring rope. That was the positon from which their tag team finishing move was delivered: a version of Twisted Bliss that was unsurprisingly titled Twisted Thorne.

"Hey, everyone," Lucy said with more enthusiasm than usual. Then she turned to the girl standing next to her. "Say hi, Clem."

"Hi," she said nervously, partially hiding behind Lucy. Seeing so many famous faces in one room all greeting them appeared to be daunting for her.

Alexa made sure she was the first to walk over, hoping that would put her a bit more at ease. "Hey, Clementine!" she said happily. "It's great to see you again! Can I get a hug?"

"Of course!" Clementine said, smiling at her favourite wrestler. She walked into Alexa's arms.

Back at the Royal Rumble the two women's rosters had been given separate locker rooms, so no one who had been on Smackdown had met Clementine yet. Carmella and Bayley, now a team once again, were the next ones to step forward.

"Hi, Clementine. I'm Carmella," she said with a warm smile after Alexa's hug was finished.

"It's nice to meet you," Clem said politely, promptly melting Alexa's heart. She didn't think she had ever met such a sweet kid.

"It's nice to meet you, too. Are you excited for Wrestlemania?"

"Yes! Lucy and Alexa are going to win the new tag team titles."

"I think you might be right," Bayley said thoughtfully. "But the real question is, can you hug like a champ?"

"She's a good hugger," Lucy said. Alexa noted the pride in her voice, finding it very touching.

Clementine hugged Bayley, who crouched down to make a better job of it. It was hard to tell which one of them looked the happier.

"Hey, Clem, do you want to check out the Money in the Bank briefcase?" Carmella suggested after Bayley stood back up.

"Can I?" Clementine asked, looking at Lucy for permission.

"Sure you can, sweet pea. But stay with Bayley and Carmella. There are some people busy getting ready for the show in here."

"Okay," Clem promised.

Carmella and Bayley led her over to their corner of the locker room, with several of the other women saying something nice to Clementine as she passed by them.

"Everyone's doing their best to make her feel comfortable," Lucy quietly said to Alexa as they walked over to their own lockers, Lucy pulling her case along with her.

"Of course. She's a great kid," Alexa said warmly, following her friend's example by talking at a volume not loud enough for Clementine to hear. "And now we know you're going to adopt her, I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of her."

"Yeah, I guess you will," Lucy said. She sat down on the bench in front of her locker and gestured for Alexa to join her.

Taking a seat, Alexa said, "She seems to be doing really well, all things considered."

"She's a strong, tough, brave girl. We've spoken to her mom and, of course, she said there has been a lot of crying since her dad died. She understands that her mom is dying too, so we all sat down at their house one evening and told her that we'd agreed would be the ones she would come to live with after… well, you know."

"Yeah," Alexa said sadly, feeling for the woman she had never met, who was destined to lose her life to cancer. "How did Clem take the news? About being adopted by you guys, I mean."

"I couldn't exactly say she was happy about it, but how could she be when it's happening because her parents will be dead? She likes spending time with us and she trusts us to take care of her. I'm not sure we could hope for more than that right now."

"You're probably right," Alexa agreed with a little nod.

"I'll always be grateful to Vince for giving Seth and I so much time off lately. People like to shit on WWE and make them out to be bad employers, but it's not true at all. They look out for you when you need them to."

Alexa nodded again. There had been some weeks in the past month or so when Seth and Lucy had only worked Monday nights for TV; spending the rest of the time at home taking care of their new family business. "When is Clem moving in with you? Do you know yet? I mean, are you even ready for it?"

Lucy said nothing for a moment, looking over at Clementine, who was posing for a picture with Carmella's briefcase. Charlotte and Natalya were also over there now. Clem was quickly winning hearts and minds, as always seemed to be the case. "We're pretty much ready," Lucy said eventually. "We've decorated a room for her in colours she chose. Seth did a great job of it for her. We've also hired a nanny, since we're not going to be there all that often to care for her ourselves."

"I thought about that. A nanny is pretty much the only thing you could do. What's she like?"

"We decided to get someone quite young, since Clem's young herself. The girl we went with is thirty. Her name is Maggie, and she has several years of experience. We got a glowing reference from her past employers, who let her go when they moved across the country. Their loss is our gain, hopefully. Clem liked her; that was the final important part of our decision."

"I'm glad it's all working out as well as it can," Alexa said with a smile. "Do you know when she'll be moving in with you?"

Lucy sighed. "The way her mom's started to go downhill, I don't think it's going to be long before she's in hospital and unable to care for Clem. That's when we'll have to step in." Brightening a little, she added, "You and Dean should come for dinner or something, once we've got everything settled."

Alexa liked that idea. She now considered Lucy to be a friend, and Dean and Seth were like brothers. It would be a nice time if they could all get together outside of work. "I'd like that. So would Dean. You know, he's really happy for you and Seth that you're going to have a family. He might not say it, but…"

"Sshhh," Lucy cautioned. Clementine was walking over to them.

"Lucy, Carmella told Charlotte she might cash the briefcase in on her tonight!" Clementine said excitedly.

"If she does, you were the first to know about it," Lucy said, grinning.

Alexa sat and watched them chatting away for a couple of minutes. If it wasn't for the obvious difference in their ethnic backgrounds, it would have been hard to tell they were not mother and daughter. For her part, Alexa wanted to get to know Clementine a little better herself. It would be useful if Dean had been right when he had said they would become effective aunt and uncle. It had certainly been adorable to see him looking forward to taking on the role so much. There was also the fact that she was Clem's favourite wrestler, so she would presumably love the chance to spend some time with her. For that reason, Alexa decided to make an offer. "Clem, do you want to go see the arena with me? They've built a huge set for Wrestlemania."

"Yes, please," Clementine said politely. "If that's okay?" she added, seeking approval from Lucy.

"Of course," Lucy agreed, happy that Alexa was showing an interest, knowing how much that would mean to Clem. "Make sure you stay with Alexa, though. No wandering off, okay?"

"Okay."

Standing up, Alexa offered her hand. Clementine took it and they headed for the door. Outside in the hallway, Alexa sensed timidness from her. It was hardly surprising, she realised. The poor girl was backstage at Wrestlemania, mingling with all of the women she watched every week on TV. It could not be anything other than unnerving. The experience was something she would get used to, but for right now Alexa needed to make her feel at ease; like she was with a friend, not a hero. "Have you been to Wrestlemania before?" she asked lightly.

"No," Clementine said, nerves evident in her voice. "I've been to Raw a few times and the Royal Rumble. I remember you hiding under the bottom rope," she added with a giggle, referring to the women's rumble match.

That's more like it, Alexa thought with a smile of her own. "I wanted to stay there until the end. I hoped Lucy would throw everyone out."

"I hoped so too. I wanted you to win so bad."

Alexa could remember that clearly, too, having met her backstage that night before the event. Meeting young fans was always nice; even more so when she was their favourite. Usually, that accolade went to Bayley. "I know you did, honey," she said with a thin smile, wanting to tread carefully around the issue of kayfabe. "It just didn't work out that way."

"I know. But now you and Lucy are a team, and that's even better. You guys are going to win tonight. I'm sure of it."

"We'll do our best," Alexa promised her. Since there was no negative reaction, she now knew that Clementine didn't understand how wrestling really worked as yet. Lucy and Seth had obviously been careful with what they had said to her, in order to keep the mystery of the business alive. In any event, she wasn't going to let on that Twisted Thorne were actually booked to lose their match to Paige and Becky Lynch - a decision that didn't seem to make much sense given how over they were right now. But that was how it went with WWE's creative. Logic had to be left at the door where those guys were concerned.

"You've got this," Clem said confidently. "Paige and Becky are good, but Lucy is too strong for them and you're too clever. That's why I like you the best; you're smarter than the others."

"Thanks, Clem," Alexa said, not even trying to hide her big grin.

They were now approaching the Gorilla Position, the wrestler's last stop before they went out into the arena during the show. Right now, it was crawling with backstage crew members who were getting things ready. Vince McMahon was also there, talking with Kevin Dunn, a man that only Vince seemed to like. Just as Alexa and Clementine approached, that conversation came to end and Vince turned to walk away, almost accidentally barging into them.

"Oh, excuse me," he said in his deep, booming voice. Then he recognised Clementine. "Hello again, Clementine. I hope you're looking forward to the show?"

Meanwhile, the buck-toothed wonder walked past without acknowledging them.

"I am," Clementine said shyly. "This is my first Wrestlemania, and I get to watch it backstage. It's going to be a lot of fun."

"Your first one, huh? Well, I hope you enjoy it. We've got lots of exciting matches lined up for you. Who knows, maybe you'll be appearing at Wrestlemania for us one day yourself. Would you like that?"

"Yes!" she replied, eyes wide in excitement at the idea.

"We have a future Women's Champion right here," Alexa said with a big smile.

Vince laughed once. "You never know. Enjoy the show, Clementine. Alexa, Hunter needs to see you and Lucy when you're ready."

"Okay, thanks," Alexa said, wondering what that would be about.

"He's nice, but he still scares me," Clementine said once Vince was a suitable distance away from them.

With a chuckle, Alexa said, "He scares everyone, Clem. It's because he's the boss."

Clementine seemed to consider that for a moment and then accept it as something that made sense. "How do we get into the arena?" she asked next. "Is it up here?" she pointed to a set of steps that led upwards, with a black curtain at the top which was currently left open for people to easily come and go when they needed to.

"Yeah, that's it. Go on, you go up first," Alexa encouraged, enjoying her role as tour guide.

Holding onto the hand rail, Clementine ran up the steps and through the curtain. Alexa had to hurry to keep up.

"Wow! Look at this!" Clem was saying with real wonder in her voice when Alexa followed her out onto the stage. She looked around with wide eyes. "Look how big it is! And the arena is huge!"

"It looks even more impressive when it's full of people," Alexa said. Then she pointed down the enormous entrance ramp to the ring. "Look, Clem. They've got the Hell in a Cell down around the ring."

"Awesome!" she exclaimed. "Can we go down and look at it?"

"I think it's best if we don't. The guys are working on it, look. We don't want to get in their way."

"Oh, okay," Clem said, obviously disappointed.

To take her mind off it, Alexa spent a couple of minutes walking her around the stage. When they were back at the top of the entrance ramp again, Clementine asked, "Alexa, can you help me with something?"

"Sure I can, sweetheart. What is it?"

Clementine reached into one of the pockets on her jeans and pulled out a couple of light blue items. Alexa couldn't quite tell what they were at first, but the explanation was quick to arrive. "My mom helped me to order these wristbands for Seth and Lucy. We found a site where you can customise your own design and get them delivered for just a few bucks each. I spent my allowance on them. I wanted to thank them for giving me somewhere to live."

Totally unprepared to hear that, Alexa felt herself tearing up. "Can I have a look?" she managed to ask without betraying her emotions. Clementine handed her one of the wristbands, and she made like she was holding it up to see it in better to light to discretely wipe her eyes. The wristband had a simple message on it in white text: Thank you. Next to the two words was a smiley face.

"Do you think they'll like them?" Clementine asked, obviously keen for approval.

"They'll love them, Clem. This was a really nice thing to do. But what do you need my help for?" Alexa handed the wristband back and Clementine put them both back in her pocket.

"I wanted to surprise them with the wristbands, but it's been so busy today I haven't been able to. Can you help me get them together somewhere?"

"Yeah, we can do that, no problem," Alexa promised. "I'll help you get them together somewhere quiet, then I'll leave you to it. I don't think I should be there when you give them your gifts. It should be a moment just for you guys."

"You're right," Clem said thoughtfully. "Thank you, Alexa. I never thought I would even meet you, now here I am at Wrestlemania with you. Life is crazy."

"It really is, honey," Alexa said gently, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She couldn't imagine what the poor girl was going through, yet she was doing it was such incredible strength of character. Alexa felt out of her depth even trying to come up with something to say that didn't seem totally inadequate. Instead, she decided to focus on a positive. "Shall we go and find Lucy and Seth now?"

"Okay," Clementine agreed with a smile, and they made their way back off the stage, hand in hand.


	20. Chapter 20

"Hey, darlin'," Dean said, pleasantly surprised to see Alexa when he opened The Shield's locker room door. It was somewhat rare for them to see each other until a show was over, once they had parted ways after their customary afternoon visit to catering for something to eat. "Just couldn't stay away, huh?" he added with one of his silly grins that never failed to make her giggle.

It worked this time, too, but Alexa had a comeback for him. "I could have stayed away just fine. I'm here for Seth. Lucy needs him to come to our locker room."

Dean feigned grumpiness at that revelation. "What's up with her? Her legs stopped working or something?"

"Very funny. Can you just get him to come out, please?"

"Seth!" he turned and yelled into the locker room, still holding the door open. "Stop jerking off and get out here."

Alexa rolled her eyes at the way the Shield guys always talked to each other.

"Fuck you. I was sorting my hair out," she heard Seth say somewhere in the room.

"That accounts for five seconds, doing something with that mess," Dean said dryly.

A moment later, Seth appeared in the doorway. "Hey, Alexa. What's up?"

"Your boss wants you," Dean answered for her. Then, to Alexa he said, "I'll see you later."

"See you later, baby," Alexa replied, batting her eyelashes at him in the hope of embarrassing him in front of Seth. Instead, he just laughed and walked away into the room.

"That's true love right there," Seth chuckled as he and Alexa set off along the hallway. "Is everything okay with Lucy and Clem?" he asked, turning more serious.

"Yeah, they're fine. They just asked me to come fetch you."

Alexa made sure not to elaborate any more than that before they got to the women's locker room. Clementine's gifts were certainly not her surprise to spoil. "Right, here will do," she said when they were in sight of the locker room. She knew that Clem needed somewhere quiet to speak to him and Lucy. Considering how busy everywhere was backstage, a quiet little alcove in the hallway was the best it was going to get. She signalled to Bayley, who had been posted outside the women's locker room with instructions to send Clem and Lucy out when Seth arrived.

"What's going on?" Seth said, a nervous grin on his face as Bayley went into the locker room. It was clear that he was being set up for something, but he had no idea what it might be.

"Just wait here," Alexa said, determined not to let anything slip.

The women's locker room door opened again and Clementine came out, followed by Lucy. "What's going on?" Seth repeated when they approached him.

"I don't know," Lucy admitted with a curious smile. "Clem wanted to see us both somewhere quiet, that's all she'll tell me."

"This is about the best I could do," Alexa said to Clementine, gesturing to the alcove behind her where several large equipment boxes were stacked.

"Thank you," Clementine said, leading the way over there.

Alexa took it upon herself to stand guard and make sure no one else walked over there and interfered. She couldn't deny that she also wanted to see how Seth and Lucy reacted to the lovely, unexpected gesture they were about to receive. It wasn't really her business, though, so she made sure to keep her distance as much as was practical.

"What's up, Clem?" Seth asked once they had some element of privacy.

Clementine took a second to think about how best to put what she wanted to say into words. "I, uh, have something to give you guys." She reached into her jeans pocket, pulled out the two light blue wristbands and handed one to each of her soon-to-be guardians. "My mom found a site where you can design your own wristbands," she explained. "They let you choose a colour and add a personal message. I spent my allowance on getting you one each to say thank you for agreeing to adopt me and give me somewhere to live."

Alexa watched as both of her friends read the words 'Thank you' on the wristband, followed by the smiley face. She got the distinct impression that, in that moment, they seemed to be fully comprehending the love a parent had for their child, whether there was a biological relationship or not, for the first time. Both Lucy and Seth had tears in their eyes, and in Lucy's case running down her cheeks as well. She was the first to crouch down and give Clementine a tight hug.

"You don't have to thank us, sweet pea," she was saying. "There was no chance of us letting you go into the foster system. We couldn't have lived with ourselves if we had let that happen. We'll do everything we can to take care of you."

Clementine was returning the hug just as tightly. "I know you will," she said quietly.

Then it was Seth's turn. He had already put his wristband on while he had been waiting for his hug. "This was such a sweet thing to do, Clem," he said, crouching down in front of her. "I'm going to wear it all the time, from this moment on. Come here."

Clementine walked into his arms and hugged him, if anything even tighter than she had with Lucy. "I didn't know what was going to happen to me when my dad died," she said, now crying herself. "I thought I might have nowhere to go after mom died too."

"We'll always be here for you, Clem," Seth promised her solemnly. Alexa could tell that he had a lump in his throat. Feeling a little awkward seeing all three of them crying, she turned her back.

"Don't ever doubt that," Lucy added. Her words were quickly followed by a loud sniff. She was obviously trying to stop herself breaking down in front of Clementine.

Seth went on, "Do you remember what we promised you and your mom that night when we all talked about this at your house? We promise to always love you and care for you as if you're our own. We promise."

By now, Alexa was scrunching her own eyes closed tight to fight back tears. A few feet behind her, a family was being created. A situation that was too heart-breaking for words was being turned into something heart-warming by the sheer force of human kindness.

Lucy's voice came next. "I want you to show me the site you got these wristbands from, Clem. We're going to get you one, too. We'll put 'We promise' on it, so you never have to worry about us letting you down."

"Okay," Clementine said, sounding happy with that suggestion. "We're all crying," she pointed out next, weakly trying to inject a bit of humour into the situation.

"We are," Lucy said, managing a small laugh. "I think we should go to the bathroom and wash our faces."

"Good idea," Seth agreed.

With the emotional part of the conversation over, Alexa turned back to face them, glad that they had managed to have their moment without interruption. Seth took Clementine's hand and walked past Alexa, giving her a smile of gratitude as he passed by.

"Thank you for helping to organise that for Clem," Lucy said quietly to Alexa when they began following Seth and Clementine along the hallway.

"I was glad to," she replied. "There was no way I could have said no, anyway. It was so touching when she asked me to help her and told my about the wristbands she bought. She used her own money, too. I nearly burst into tears myself. She's such a sweet kid."

"I know," Lucy said, looking at the wristband which she had decided to put on her right wrist. "I'm never going to take this off unless I absolutely have to."

"I don't blame you. But what about when you're in the ring?"

Lucy considered that for a second. "I can probably tuck it inside my glove. They come up just past my wrist. I'll find some way to keep it on, that's for sure."

Hearing what Lucy was saying and watching Seth and Clementine walking hand in hand up ahead of them made Alexa feel so happy for all three of them. They were just starting out on their journey as a family, yet it was easy to see the love already developing between them. There would be tough times for sure, particularly when Clementine's mom succumbed to her brain tumour, but she had every confidence that they would get through it. "I'm really happy for you guys, I just have to say that," she said with a smile.

"Thanks, Alexa," Lucy said warmly.

They had now reached the bathrooms. "I'll wait for you when I'm done," Seth said on his way into the men's room, knowing that he would be done faster than the girls.

As Alexa followed Clementine and Lucy into the women's room and stood in the corner of the room, she remembered something she had been told earlier. She was glad she had, otherwise she could have landed them both in hot water. "I just thought, Clem and I bumped into Vince earlier."

"He scares me," Clementine interrupted while washing her face.

"What did he say?" Lucy asked, doing likewise at her own basin. It wasn't exactly clear who she had directed the question to.

"He was nice, but he still scares me."

Grinning, Alexa also answered the question. "He said Hunter needs to see us."

Lucy turned and looked at her with a slightly confused expression. "What for?" Then she remembered that creative plans couldn't be discussed in front of Clem. "Actually, never mind. We'll just go and see him in a minute."

"Can I come with you?" Clementine asked.

"No, sweet pea. You can go with Seth and see Roman and Dean. How does that sound?"

Clementine looked a bit uneasy at the prospect. "Dean is a bit scary too."

Alexa burst out laughing at that, already looking forward to teasing him about it later. Her laughter surprised Clem, who looked over at her with widened eyes. "Sorry, Clem. Don't worry about Dean, he's a big softy really, you'll see."

Clementine looked to Lucy for confirmation, and got a nod. "It's true, and you can tell him Alexa said that. They're good friends."

"Okay," Clementine said brightly, obviously intending to do exactly that. Alexa's only regret was that she wouldn't be there to see it happen.

Shortly, Lucy had sorted herself out and checked that Clem was okay. All signs of their tears had been washed away. "All set," was Lucy's verdict.

Alexa led them out of the bathroom, finding Seth leaning against the opposite wall out in the hallway. "Everything okay?" he asked when his two favourite girls appeared.

"We're good. Right, Clem?" Lucy asked.

"We're good," she confirmed.

"Alexa and I need to go see Hunter, Seth. Can you take Clem with you? She's got something she wants to say to Dean."

"Oh? What's that?" Seth asked Clementine.

"Alexa said he's a big softy."

Seth roared with laughter. "You're right, he is a big softy. You should definitely tell him that. Come on, let's go." He held out his hand for her to take, then added, "Say bye to Alexa."

"Bye," Clem said with a cheerful wave.

It was amazing how quickly kids could go from being upset to happy, and, Alexa supposed, back again. "Bye, Clem," she said with a wave of her own. She and Lucy stood there for a moment watching them walk away. "Such a lovely kid," she said when they were far enough down the hallway for Clementine not to hear the conversation.

"She really is. I love her already," Lucy said, making it sound like she was taking Alexa into some kind of confidence.

"I don't doubt that. And, more importantly, neither does she."

"You think so?" Lucy asked.

"I know so. She might not think of you as parents, understandably, but it's obvious she knows how you feel about her. I can't imagine what was going through her head when her dad died, knowing that her mom was going to die as well. She's a smart kid. She might have looked it up online and read about the fostering system. I'm sure there are a lot of great people who foster kids, but she might also have read some real horror stories. Then you guys stepped up for her. It's such an amazing story, Lucy. You've done such an incredible thing."

"Thanks," Lucy said quietly, looking down at the floor for a second to compose herself. "Don't start me off crying again; I've got a reputation to keep up around here."

Alexa gave her a knowing smile. "The secret is safe with me. Come on, let's get to Hunter's office before he sends out a search party."


	21. Chapter 21

Seth walked into The Shield's locker room first and let the door almost close behind him, just in case either Roman or Dean was in any state of undress. He saw that was not the case; his two brothers were just sitting there talking. Opening the door again, he said, "It's okay, Clem, you can come in."

"Hey, Clementine," Roman said warmly when the young girl walked in. Unlike Dean, he was used to how to best talk to children, since he had a daughter of his own.

"Hi," Clem replied shyly, hesitant to walk further into the room.

"It's alright," Seth encouraged her. "You can sit in front of my locker."

Clementine did as he said, but sitting on the bench in front of Seth's locker meant sitting next to Dean. Her body language gave away that she wasn't confident about that part of the arrangement.

"I don't bite," Dean said, trying to make light of her unease.

With a reassuring smile, Seth said, "Remember what Alexa told you, Clem."

"Oh, yeah," she said, brightening up a bit. Alexa had told her Dean was really a big softy, and she trusted Alexa not to lie. Maybe it was okay to sit next to him after all.

"What did Alexa say?" Dean asked, looking first at Seth, then at Clementine for the answer.

"I don't think I should say," Clementine said cautiously, looking to Seth for guidance.

"I think you should," he said. "Then we can see if it's true or not."

"Go on, tell us," Roman encouraged her, sensing that it was going to be something amusing.

Clementine summoned the courage to look Dean in the eye as she said, "I said you're a bit scary, but Alexa said I don't need to be scared of you because you're really just a big softy."

Roman roared with laughter, which helped Dean to laugh it off as well. He could understand why Alexa had said that, wanting to put the child at ease, but he was still going to have to have a word with her about it. Being described as a softy by his girl was not exactly something to be proud of, in his opinion. Even so, he realised that the best thing to do with Clementine was to play along. She was understandably nervous at being in their locker room, and it was up to him and Roman to make that feeling go away. "You got my number," he admitted with a grin. "I am a big softy, but you need to promise not to tell anyone else. Imagine if someone like The Miz found out? I'd never hear the last of it."

"You're right," Clem said, imagining The Miz cutting some promo about Dean in the ring based on the information she had on him. "I won't say anything to anyone, I promise."

"That right there is what The Shield is all about," Roman said. "Hey, I've got an idea. Since Lucy is off doing her thing with Alexa, we've got a bit of a free spot on the team. We could recruit Clem as an honorary member."

"I think that's a great idea," Seth said, nodding his approval. "Dean, what do you say?"

Dean studied Clementine carefully, managing not to react to the eager, excited expression on her face. "I don't know. Can we trust her?" he wondered.

"You can trust me!" Clem said immediately. "I'd be a good member of the team."

"You'd always have our backs?" Dean asked, pushing her.

"Of course I would!"

"And you'd never tell our secrets to anyone?"

"No!" Clementine insisted strongly.

"You'd never tell anyone I'm a big softy?" he pressed on, making that sound like the most important point.

"No!" she replied emphatically.

"And you'd never tell anyone that Lucy farts all that time?"

"She does not!" Clem exclaimed while Roman roared with laughter again.

"Okay, you passed the test," Dean said, nodding his satisfaction. "Not only did you promise to have our backs, you defended Lucy's honour. That's an important part of being a Shield member."

"So I'm in?" Clementine asked hopefully.

"You're in," Seth said. He was pleasantly surprised by how good Dean was being with her. Maybe Uncle Dean really would be something that suited him after all.

"We have to make it official," Roman pointed out. He held out his enormous clenched fist. Dean followed suit, and so did Seth. "Let's go, Clem," Roman said.

To be able to join in, she had to get up and walk over to them. With a huge smile on her face, she touched her little fist to the others.

"There we go," Dean said. "Now, if anyone messes with you, they mess with us."

"Awesome!" she said.

Seth could tell that the number one objective had been achieved: Clementine would not feel nervous walking into The Shield's locker room again. "And do you know what else it means?" he asked her.

"What?"

"You get to watch Wrestlemania in here, as part of the team. We'll have on it that TV up there." He pointed to a flat screen on the wall opposite the benches.

"Cool! I can't wait! Lucy and Alexa are definitely going to win!"

BREAK

As they walked into Hunter Helmsley's office, Lucy and Alexa had the exact opposite in mind. They had been told several weeks earlier that they would be putting Paige and Becky Lynch over as the first ever WWE Women's Tag Team Champions.

"Ah, good," Hunter said from behind his desk when they entered the room. He rose to greet them. "How are you both?"

"Good, thank you," Alexa said politely.

"Yeah, good," Lucy agreed.

"Is Clementine enjoying herself backstage?" he asked. As talent relations was one of his areas of responsibility, he was fully up to speed with the adoption situation.

"It's a bit overwhelming for her, but she's enjoying herself," Lucy said. "Seth's just taken her off to the Shield locker room."

"And I sent her with a message to tell Dean he's a big softy," Alexa added, grinning.

Hunter laughed. "I'm sure that'll get a laugh from Roman and Seth." With that, it was down to business. "So, the reason I wanted you both to come is that Becky and Paige came to see me earlier. They wanted to ask me to change the finish of your match tonight. They want to put you over for the titles."

"Why?" Lucy asked. Bring patient and listening wasn't one of her strengths.

"I'm about to tell you," Hunter said without any sign of irritation. "I had to agree with some of the points they made; namely that they haven't been getting great reactions as a face team of late, and you two certainly don't have enough heat as heels, or any heat all at all, to be honest. Most of the time, people are cheering for you over them. I know the in thing is to cheer the heels over the faces anyway, but even so, it's not going the way we planned. Becky and Paige put forward the idea of you getting the win, with them turning heel on you after the match. I think that would be a good outcome for all involved."

Lucy and Alexa looked at each other while they thought over what he had pitched to them. Both could tell that the other liked the idea. Twisted Thorne had undoubtedly proven to be popular, and Paige and Becky had seemed to go a bit stale as faces in recent weeks.

"I like the idea, but it might be better for the turn to happen tomorrow night," Lucy suggested. "Raw after Mania, you know it's going to be all Brits in the crowd, and you know what that means when I'm in the ring. They'll be white hot for me and Alexa. If Paige and Becky turned on us then, they'd get so much heat."

"Maybe you're right," Hunter said pragmatically. "Or maybe they'd also get behind Paige and Becky as well? Either way, that's not what I promised them. They put the idea forward of giving up their title run, so I think they deserve to get their moment by turning at Wrestlemania itself, in front of tonight's huge crowd. Leaving the two of you laying will be a massive deal for them, and we can push them hard on the back of it, both against you guys and other teams like Baymella."

Alexa had to admit she could see the logic in the idea. She also felt grateful to Paige and Becky for offering to put her and Lucy over on the biggest stage of them all. Although both teams would be getting something out of the deal, making it good business all round, Twisted Thorne would still be the ones getting the Wrestlemania win and a run with the title belts. "I can get on-board with that," she said happily. "I think it's an idea that works well for everyone. As you said, taking us both out after the match will be a big deal for them, and it should get quite the negative reaction."

"And it could actually get me properly over as a face for the first time," Lucy added. It had been the McMahon's wish for her to be the top female baby face character ever since she had been with the company. The problem had been that they had gone about it way too blatantly, and the fans had therefore rejected her. That adverse reaction now seemed to be subsiding at last with Twisted Thorne, so seizing the moment was probably a good idea.

"I agree," Hunter said. "Things seem to be coming together from various angles to make this idea a success. The key, though, is that you have to do a good job of selling their attack after the match. To look like our new badass heel team, they have to destroy you. Anything less, it will run the risk of falling flat."

"They could put us through the commentary tables?" Alexa suggested. "What better way to round off a comprehensive beat down than that?"

"Both of you going through tables," Hunter mused, picturing it happening as he spoke. "Yeah, that would work. It would certainly make quite the statement, and that's what we're looking for here. We'll go with it," he decided. "I leave the two of you to sort out the table spots with Becky and Paige."

"We'll do that," Lucy said. Then a smile spread across her face. "Clem is going to be so happy when we get the win. She's been telling me all day that we're going to win the titles for sure. She can't even picture Alexa and I losing. Alexa is her favourite," she explained to Hunter.

"Really? That's different. I'm surprised it's not Bayley."

"She likes Bayley, just not as much as Alexa."

"Or her new foster mom," Hunter guessed.

"We're not going to call ourselves mom and dad. It'll be Clem's decision when, or if, that happens. We're just happy to be able to take her in and give her a good home. The more time we spend with her, the more we're coming to love her already." She raised her right wrist to show him her new wristband. "She bought me and Seth one of these to say thank you, for giving her somewhere to live, as she put it. It was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me."

"Bless her, that's so heart-warming," Hunter said with a big smile. "She's found herself in such an awful situation, but from what you've told me I know she's a strong girl. With your help, she will get through it. I'm really proud of you and Seth for what you've done for her. As I've said before, if there's any way Steph and I can help, all you have to do is ask."

"Thank you, Hunter, but you've already done so much for us. We owe you after how much time off you've given us, and will give us once Clem's mom approaches the end of her life."

"There's nothing to thank me for. This a little girl's world being turned upside down we're talking about."

They chatted for another couple of minutes, then Hunter brought the meeting to a close, saying that he had plenty of work to get through before the show started. Dismissed from the office, Alexa and Lucy headed for the women's locker room.

"You know what I'm looking forward to?" Lucy asked as they walked along the hallway.

"Our entrance later?" Alexa guessed. They were sure to get a good reaction from the enormous crowd in the Superdome, particularly with a lot of British people there. Since WWE's American fans had always booed Lucy, the Brits had made a point of backing her to the fullest extent.

"Well, yeah, that," Lucy conceded. "But I was actually thinking about having a glass of wine or two tonight at the after party. There's been so much going on lately, the chance to have a good time is much needed."

"I can't claim to have had the few weeks you have, but the chance to unwind will definitely be good," Alexa agreed.

"Seth and I won't be getting wrecked, though; Clem will be there with us. Better start getting used to that kind of thing I guess, now that I'm basically a mom. It's so weird to think of myself that way, I can't even tell you."

"Yet you're really good at it, from what I've seen," Alexa said, emphasising the positivity.

"Thanks, Alexa. I'm doing my best, that's all I can say."

They walked in a companionable silence for a moment, then Alexa said, "There is one thing that troubles me about tonight."

"Oh?" Lucy asked, looking at her with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Dean will get drunk, and Renee and Finn will be there, presumably drinking as well."

"You think it's all going to kick off again?"

"I'm worried that it might," Alexa said with a grimace. "I should be thinking that it's a good thing that those two have kept out of our way for the past couple of weeks. Maybe they've decided to grow up and move on? But I just have a feeling that's not the case. I think they'd love to have Dean go off the deep end again like he did in that parking lot, only right in front of everyone this time. I'm going to keep my eye on them."

"Not a bad idea, but you shouldn't have to go into a celebration thinking like that. Those two really annoy me," Lucy said. Even though neither Renee nor Finn had done or said anything directly to her, they were upsetting her friends, and she wasn't the kind of person to stay indifferent to that. "You know, Charlotte called me the other day when I was at home. She told me Renee told her that she'd had a row with Finn."

Alexa grunted derisively. "I guess that's what happens when you rush into a relationship just to try and prove a point to your ex."

"Right," Lucy agreed. "Finn's a weird little shit anyway. I've always thought he was creepy."

Sometimes the way things sounded in Lucy's English accent made Alexa giggle like crazy. That was one of those occasions. "He really is," she said once she had gotten herself under control. "Hopefully I'm wrong and they don't try and start something tonight."

"I'm sure they won't," Lucy said as they reached the women's locker room. Before opening the door, she added, "And if they do? It just makes them look bad. I wouldn't worry about it."


	22. Chapter 22

In The Shield locker room, Dean, Roman, Seth and Clementine were watching Wrestlemania on their TV. Paige and Becky Lynch were making their entrance for the second match on the card, where the winning team would be crowned the first ever WWE Women's Tag Team Champions.

"You're going to lose!" Clementine told Becky, who was posing on turnbuckles in the corner of the ring.

"You tell her, Clem," Seth said, loving how into the event she was getting.

The team in the ring were supposed to be the baby faces, but after their music faded out, the fans started chanting, "Twisted Thorne!"

"They're really getting behind them," Roman commented.

"Brits in the crowd," Dean said.

"True, but it's not just that. Alexa and Lucy make a great team and a great combination." He was about to say that creative had done a good job for once, but he remembered in time not to talk about that kind of thing in front of Clementine.

"Of course they do," she said. "They're the two best women in WWE."

Roman and Seth made eye contact and exchanged quick smiles. It struck Seth that they now essentially had something in common as fathers. It was a surreal thing for him to realise, but it was true.

Out in the arena, Twisted Thorne's entrance music hit, drawing a generous ovation from the huge crowd. The commentators hyped up the match as they walked out onto the gigantic stage. Alexa had a Twisted Thorne shirt on, as did Lucy, albeit mostly hidden by her body armour.

"I can't believe I left the gloves Alexa gave me at home," Clementine said when her hero struck her signature pose at the top of the entrance ramp.

"If they win, you'll need a women's tag team belt as well," Dean said.

"You're right," Clem said, looking at him with wide eyes. That thought hadn't occurred to her before.

"If they win, we'll get you a belt," Seth promised her.

Clementine turned to him with a beaming smile on her face. "Thank you, Seth. I would love that. First, they need to win!"

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Lucy was running riot over Becky and Paige, having recently gotten a hot tag. Her flurry of offense ended with one of Twisted Thorne's signature moves, picking Alexa up in a Gorilla press position and throwing her over the top rope at Paige, who was taken down and out by the impact. Alexa was also left down on the floor.

Taking advantage of Lucy's back being turned, Becky came from behind her and grabbed her into the position for her signature pumphandle side slam.

Lucy made sure to kick out as late as possible for the best reaction from the fans. The finish of the match was now at hand.

Frustrated by the near fall, Becky yelled at the referee, then proceeded to viciously stamp on Lucy's chest several times. With that done, she hauled her taller opponent to her feet and whipped her towards the ropes.

It proved to be a fatal mistake because Alexa was just climbing back onto the apron in Twisted Thorne's corner. She was able to reach out and slap Lucy's back as she hit the ropes, making a tag that Becky didn't see.

Becky kicked Lucy in the stomach, then got her in position for the Bexploder suplex. Unfortunately for her, Alexa was on the top rope, ready to fly. She leapt into the air and connected with a dropkick right to Becky's face.

The impact sent the Irish woman to the mat. Relatively unhurt, she was able to quickly get up. But that proved to be mistake number two.

Seizing the advantage, Lucy was now waiting in a familiar poised stance. The crowd cheered in anticipation as Becky was scooped up onto her shoulders, then roared their delight when she connected with the Thorne in the Side sitout piledriver.

That high impact move would likely have been enough to get the win, but Lucy was not done. In any case, she was not the legal woman.

That honour belonged to Alexa, who was now up on the top rope for a second time. Everyone in the arena knew what was going to happen next. A large majority of the fans were going wild, further confirming the wisdom of Hunter's decision to change the finish.

"They're going to win!" Clementine yelled back in the locker room. She was on her feet, standing right in front of the TV, as if being close to it made some kind of difference.

On the screen, Lucy climbed onto the middle rope, then Alexa climbed from the top rope onto her shoulders. After briefly copying Lucy's signature T pose, arms stretched out, she jumped high in the air and delivered what was essentially her old Twisted Bliss finisher, now titled Twisted Thorne. The cover she made was academic.

In the locker room, everyone joined in with count, for the benefit of Clementine's enjoyment. "One! Two! Three!"

Having gotten back to her feet, Paige had tried to lunge through the middle rope to break up the count, but she had been unable to reach.

"I knew it!" Clementine yelled in delight, running over to Seth for a hug.

"You owe her a belt," Dean reminded him with a smirk.

"Yeah, I do," Seth said, returning Clem's embrace. He knew she would react similarly when he and Dean won the Raw Tag Team Championships later in the night. Before then, Lucy and Alexa were going to get a beat down. That would please her a lot less.

On the screen, Twisted Thorne hugged each other in celebration of their win, while the fans continued cheering. On the spur of the moment, Lucy crouched down, encouraging Alexa to sit on her shoulders. She obliged, and they both posed with their title belts; Alexa in her unique manner, holding the belt behind her.

"I love that!" Clementine said. "Seth, you have to get a picture of me on Lucy's shoulders."

While she was saying it, Lucy pulled her blue wristband out from where it had been tucked into her glove and kissed it, looking at the camera. It was a clear signal for one person in particular.

Seth's heart melted at the fact that Clem just stood there watching, either unable to say anything in response to the gesture, or unsure what to say. Whatever the case was, he could tell that Lucy's message had gotten across to her.

While that had all been happening, Paige had entered the ring and helped Becky to her feet. Appearing humbled, the two defeated women stood in the middle of the ring, while Lucy and Alexa walked around, celebrating with the fans. It took Lucy a while to realise that the other two women were there.

Turning around, with Alexa still on her shoulders, Lucy stopped in her tracks, unsure about the intentions of Becky and Paige.

Nodding in what appeared to be a gracious of admission of defeat, Becky began applauding. She looked at Paige, who grimaced, a defeated and humbled woman. Then, out of nowhere, their demeanours changed. Before Lucy could react, Becky superkicked her in the face.

With the fans howling in disgust and shock, Lucy fell backwards, sending Alexa crashing down hard to the mat. Becky and Paige were on them in a flash, Becky repeatedly stomping on Alexa, while Paige mounted Lucy, brutally punching her in the face.

Becky ragged Alexa to her feet, then hurled her over the top rope like a piece of garbage, sending her flying out in front of the commentary tables.

Meanwhile, Paige had managed to get Lucy to her feet. Clearly incensed by the loss she had suffered, Becky had totally lost it. She headbutted Lucy, sending her staggering around the ring, holding her face. Poised, Becky waited for the right moment, then hit a Bexploder. For the moment, Lucy was out of the game.

The new heels, who were being loudly booed for their actions, turned their attention to Alexa. Paige gestured towards the outside of the ring with her head, and both women hurried out under the bottom rope. Seeing that Alexa was still down, Paige started removing the cover and monitors from the nearest commentary table.

While her partner made the preparations, Becky hauled Alexa to her feet and got her in position for a powerbomb. Once the table was cleared, she hoisted Alexa into the air and slammed her down through the table, which disintegrated with the impact. Having not hit the centre of the table top, Alexa almost slid off the side as she went through, and ended up lying on her front on the concrete floor.

"How dare they? Why doesn't someone stop them?" Clementine asked, now sitting on Seth's lap with his arms around her. Seeing her favourite wrestler get destroyed had understandably upset her.

Dean, on the other hand, had something else in mind. "Look at the Bliss booty," he said to Roman. "You can't tell me you've seen a better looking ass than that?"

"I think my wife is in the running," Roman said carefully, noting Seth glaring at them for their choice of topic in front of Clem.

Luckily, her attention was on the TV and the fact that Becky and Paige were now dragging Lucy out of the ring by her feet. This time Becky did the job of clearing one of the other commentary tables as Paige got ready to deliver a powerbomb of her own.

"No!" Clem yelled, but it was to no avail. Lucy was smashed through the table and left lying sprawled among the debris, apparently out cold.

After following their assault with some choice words, Becky and Paige turned and headed for the back, passing a flood of medics who were on their way to attend to the two injured women.

"Seth, is Lucy going to be okay?" Clementine asked, worried by the commentators, who were talking up the injuries she and Alexa might have suffered, so as to better sell the heel turn that had just gone down.

"Yeah, she'll be okay, sweetheart. Lucy's a tough girl, you know that. So is Alexa, now that I mention it. They'll both be fine."

"Really?" Clem asked doubtfully. "They have stretchers out there."

"They're just making sure to take care of them, Clem. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"He's right, Clem," Dean said. "I'll tell you what, I can take you to meet them when they come backstage if you want?"

"Okay," she said, sounding unsure about the idea.

"That's if Seth says it's okay," Dean quickly added, not wanting to overstep the mark.

Seth was somewhat surprised that Dean wanted to interact with Clementine in that way, but he wasn't going to complain about it. If both he and Roman took on roles as uncles of some kind it would make things a lot easier when Clem came to shows with him and Lucy. "You can go with him if you want to," he told her. "It's up to you."

Clem seemed to think it over for a moment, then hopped down off Seth's lap. "Okay, let's go," she said to Dean.

"That's what The Shield is all about," Dean said, surprised himself that he was enjoying being around her this much. He was starting to see why Seth and Lucy had been keen to adopt her. Clem was without doubt a pretty great kid. He walked over and offered her his fist to bump, which she gladly did. That act itself seemed to have her feeling less upset about Alexa and Lucy's potential injuries.

"Stay with Dean, Clem. Don't go wandering off anywhere," Seth cautioned her.

"I won't," she promised.

With that, Dean opened the locker room door and held it for Clem to walk out ahead of him.

"Are you friends with Alexa?" was her first question as they walked along the hallway.

"Why do you ask that?" Dean replied, taken aback by the question.

"I saw you talking to each other earlier, and you looked like friends," she said judiciously. "And now you want to come and see her and Lucy to make sure they're okay. That's what friends do."

Smart kid, Dean thought, making a mental note not to underestimate her in the future. "Yeah, I'm Alexa's friend," he said. "But I'm Lucy's friend too, don't forget that. We're going to check on both of them."

Taking that on board, Clem didn't say anything for a minute. "I thought Becky and Paige were nice people," was her next comment. "They were nice to me in the locker room, then they do something like that. I hate them now."

Dean felt himself floundering. Not only was he not good at talking to kids, he also had the problem of kayfabe to work his way around, since that was obviously what Seth and Lucy were doing with her. "You're in The Shield now, Clem," he decided to go with. "That means you've got some loyal friends, but there are also some people you might have to be careful of."

"Like Becky and Paige," she said thoughtfully.

"Exactly. You won't see me trusting them again, that's for sure."

"Or me," Clem said, so seriously that Dean had to try hard not to laugh. He was saved by the fact that they were approaching Gorilla. His luck was holding out, as Becky and Paige were nowhere to be seen, presumably having just gone down one of the other hallways towards the women's locker room.

"Where are they?" Clem asked, obviously meaning Alexa and Lucy.

"They'll be back here in a second," Dean said. At that moment, Renee walked past them from behind, doing her best to pretend that he didn't exist. That was fine as far as he was concerned. Unfortunately, Clem didn't know any of their backstory.

"Hey, Renee!" she called out, excited to see her favourite interviewer for the first time in the flesh.

Renee turned around and managed to give a pleasant smile and a wave, but she had no intention of stopping for a chat.

"Renee's awesome," Clementine said once she was out of hearing distance.

"Yeah," Dean muttered, as non-committal as could be. Further embarrassment was saved by the first stretcher coming through the curtain, surrounded by extras who were playing the part of medical personnel. Alexa was the one on the stretcher.

"Alexa!" Clem called out, running over to her before Dean could take her hand and stop her.

Reacting quickly, Alexa continued sell her injuries to some extent. She was also on message about not spoiling kayfabe. Holding her neck, she sat up on the stretcher and said, "I think I'm going to be okay, guys."

"Huh?" one of the extras asked, wondering why she was still acting now that they were backstage. The look she gave him as Clementine reached her got the message across to him. "Oh, right," he went on, now back in character. "We'll have someone come by the locker room and check you out later, okay?"

"Yeah, okay, thanks," Alexa said.

By now, Clementine was standing in front of her with an anxious look on her face. "You're okay?"

"I think I will be, sweetie. It takes more than going through a table to take me out."

"You're so awesome," Clem said with real adoration.

Alexa offered and received a hug as she said, "Thanks, Clem."

"Is Lucy okay?"

"I'm sure she is. They'll be bringing her back here in a second. In fact, here they are," Alexa said as the second stretcher came through the curtain. Clementine wriggled out of her arms and ran over there, leaving Dean to approach her.

"You okay?" he asked with a small amount of concern. After all, a table spot could still be pretty painful.

"Fine," Alexa smiled sweetly, hopping off the stretcher and giving him a quick hug. The referee of their match approached her and handed over both Women's Tag Team Championship belts. "Thanks," she said.

"Congrats, darlin'," Dean said, giving her a peck on the lips.

"Thank you, baby. I can't wait to celebrate with you tonight at the party. You'll be a champion by then, too."

"It's going to be a good night. And after what I just saw a minute ago, I'm looking forward to getting back to the room."

"Why, what did you see?" Alexa asked coyly.

"I saw some Bliss booty. Man, what a booty it is."

"Mmm hmm," Alexa said, raising an eyebrow at him. "And you think you're going to get some booty tonight, is that it?"

"Oh yeah," Dean said, nodding his head.

"I guess that could be arranged," she said, reaching up and kissing him just long enough to leave him with a taste of her on his lips.

"While I'm at it, I'll see what I can do about proving you wrong."

"Wrong about what?" Alexa asked, genuinely confused.

"Telling Clem I'm a big softy. If anything, I'm the exact opposite."

"Oh, is that a fact?" she asked, making like she doubted the truth of his statement. "I can think of a Goddess who's seen evidence to back up my claim."

"Don't get me thinking about that," Dean said, feeling himself getting aroused as he pictured her in the PVC lingerie.

Alexa laughed. Then, noticing Lucy and Clementine approaching, she said, "I'll leave that thought with you until after the party."


	23. Chapter 23

The Wrestlemania after party was the one time each year when everyone who worked for the WWE - from Vince McMahon himself all the way down to the backstage crew members - got to join in a celebration of the end of the company's year. The night after Wrestlemania was where it all began again, but before then, a good time was to be had by all, with alcohol being consumed in frankly frightening quantities.

Things would inevitably start to get rowdy as the festivities wore on, but for now, early in the night, the atmosphere in the huge function room that WWE had hired at the hotel everyone was staying in for the purpose was quite civilised.

Dean and Alexa were sitting at a table with Roman and one of his new travel partners, Sasha Banks.

"Doesn't Clem look adorable?" Alexa asked them all.

Seth, Lucy and Clementine were sitting at a nearby table. Seth had already told Dean that they were going to bring Clem for the first hour or so of the party, before taking her back to their room, where their nanny would put her to bed. Looking over at them, Dean had to agree. Clementine was wearing a white dress, and Lucy had obviously spent some time doing her hair. "She does," he said. "I think everyone can see why they couldn't say no to adopting her. She's a sweet kid."

"Is this Dean Ambrose I'm listening to?" Sasha asked, grinning.

"Yeah, I get like this when I've had a drink," Dean shot back, downing the rest of his beer. "Maybe you could try keeping up?"

"With you? I don't think so," Sasha said and Roman and Alexa laughed. Everyone at their table was lagging behind him already.

They spent half an hour chatting away happily. During that time, Dean put two more beers away. He was going at quite a pace, which wasn't a surprise to Alexa. She enjoyed a drink herself from time to time, but she couldn't go at it like he did. Part of her was tempted to ask him to slow down a bit, but she didn't want to spoil his enjoyment of the night by nagging him.

Roman was in the middle of telling an amusing story about a fight he had gotten into in school, recounting how it had ended when he had picked his opponent up and dropped him upside down into an industrial sized garbage container. Dean managed to laugh along with the two women, although he had heard the story several times before.

Suddenly, Sasha let out a shriek and covered her mouth with her hands. It came so suddenly that it made Alexa jump. She turned around to follow Sasha's eye line to see what the problem was. With a gasp of her own, she realised that it was not a problem at all that had caused the reaction. It was totally the opposite.

At the nearby table, Seth was down on one knee if front of Lucy, and was holding a ring box in his hand. "Oh!" Alexa breathed, tearing up in delight for her friend. Seth was asking her to marry him.

"Alright!" Dean said happily. By now, everyone in the room had turned their attention to what was happening and silence had descended.

"Say yes, Lucy," Roman said quietly to himself. He had found it hard enough to keep quiet about the proposal since handing the ring back to Seth earlier in the day. The original plan had been for the proposal to happen at the Wrestlemania after party the previous year, but things hadn't panned out that way, and Seth had ended up putting it off. Now, with Clementine in the picture, it was easy to see why he felt that the time was right to pop the question. But would Lucy see it the same way? The answer soon arrived.

Alexa watched as Lucy nodded her head emphatically, obviously tearful, while saying something to Seth. Her answer was obviously a yes. Everyone in the room burst into spontaneous applause, including Clementine, who didn't seem to know what she should do. Seth slipped the silver diamond ring onto Lucy's finger, then she leaned down to embrace and kiss him.

"Come on," Dean said to Alexa as he got up, wanting to be first one over there to pass on congratulations.

Following him over to their table, Alexa saw Lucy showing her ring to Clementine, who studied it with wide eyed excitement.

"Congrats, man. I thought you were never going to do it," Dean said to Seth when they reached the table. The two brothers exchanged a firm handshake. It was instinctively the right gesture for the occasion.

"Thanks, bro," Seth said.

Meanwhile, Alexa was exchanging a hug with Lucy. "I'm so happy for you both, Lucy. You make a wonderful couple."

"Thank you. I'm a bit overwhelmed right now," Lucy said, wiping her eyes with one hand.

Several of the other women, including Stephanie, had joined the group. They all started fawning over the ring while other people began to gather around, wanting to wish them well. Roman was next to congratulate Seth.

"I'll get you both a drink," Dean said, thinking that it was the least he could do for the happy couple. He made his way through the crowd to the bar, which was temporarily free of customers as everyone's attention was on Seth and Lucy. "Get me a bottle of your best champagne," he said to the bartender who came to serve him.

Almost as soon as the man walked away to fetch the champagne, Dean heard a familiar voice behind him. "All happy families over there, isn't it?" There was no warmth in the tone.

"Fuck off, Finn," Dean said as he turned around to face the Irishman. "Two of my closest friends just got engaged, and I'm not going to have you ruining the mood with your shit. So get out of my face."

Instead, Finn stepped past him and leant on the bar. "I'm just here to get a drink for me and Renee."

"Of course you are," Dean said dryly, also turning back to the bar. Deliberately, both men were looking straight ahead, not at each other. "More like you're over here trying to make some stupid point again about you being with Renee. I'm wondering when it's going to get into your tiny mind that I don't give a fuck?"

"Sounds like you give a fuck to me," Finn said nonchalantly. "You brought it up, not me."

"Trust me, I don't give a fuck," Dean clarified. "I'm perfectly happy with Alexa, which is apparently more than can be said about the two of you."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Finn demanded, now turning to look at Dean. A harsher edge had entered his voice.

"You really think everyone in the locker room doesn't hear about you and Renee arguing with each other? I must have heard it two or three times in the past month. You don't even have a relationship, you fucking dumb Irish prick. The whole thing is sham. She just rushed to you on the rebound, and you're so pig shit thick that you can't see it."

"I don't think I'll be taking relationship advice from you, Deano," Finn said condescendingly as Dean's bottle of champagne arrived, not that he was interested in it anymore.

"Oh? Why's that?" Dean asked, now getting more confrontational. They were almost squaring up to her.

Finn laughed, mocking him. "Come on, look at what you have. Some nice looking piece of ass walks up to you in a bar and you end up fucking her. Then the next minute you're kidding yourself it's a relationship. You must have taken too many chair shots to the head in your time. Honestly, it sounds to me like you got sucked in by a ring rat."

"Ah, I see your game," Dean said, pointing at Finn and laughing. "You thought you'd come over here and insult Alexa and I'd end up kicking your face in and getting myself fired. Sorry, dickhead, even I'm not quite that stupid."

Finn raised his eyebrows. "Could have fooled me. Looking at you, I'd say you're one of the dumbest pricks in the room."

Shaking his head, Dean picked up the bottle of champagne. "All you're doing is throwing childish insults around. If you want to prove you're some kind of man, meet me somewhere one night when we're not at work and we'll see who walks away and who ends up in an ambulance. Until then, fuck off."

Determined not to leave it there, Finn sent another barb in his direction. "You don't honestly think Alexa loves you, surely?"

"I know she does," Dean said matter of fact.

Finn grunted a laugh. "Bullshit. A month or two from now she will have moved on to someone else. Name one thing she's done to show she's serious about you."

Dean wasn't going to let that slide. He had been considering the idea of asking Alexa to move in with him in his house in Vegas. It was a lot nicer than her small apartment in Florida, and he knew that she liked it there a lot. He decided that was the best thing to shoot back at Finn. "She's going to move in with me, for one thing," he announced with no small amount of satisfaction.

"I'm what?" It was Alexa's voice, right behind him.

Finn burst out laughing and slapped Dean on the shoulder. "Of course she is. Have a good night, won't you?" With that, he made a swift exit, still laughing to himself. He plainly could not wait to tell Renee what had happened.

"Thanks for that, making me look a complete dick, in front of him of all people," Dean said to Alexa, turning to confront her.

Alexa stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him. "Really? You're going to start with me?" she demanded incredulously. "Who do you think you are, Dean? Telling him I'm going to move in with you when we've not even discussed it once. What is that about?"

"I was going to ask you."

"Oh, you were going to ask me?" Alexa exclaimed. "And that's it, is it? I'm automatically going to say yes simply because you ask me, so why would we talk about it? Is that really how you think of me?"

"No, of course it's not," Dean snapped loudly, feeling the red mist descending. This was all Finn's fault, not his, and he was the one getting the shit for it. Even if he had been sober, it would have been hard to keep his cool. With a few beers inside him, it was an even more difficult task. "Explain to me how wanting you to move in with me makes me a bad guy, Alexa. Because I would fucking love to know."

Before she could respond, Hunter appeared. Looking around, Alexa saw that their raised voices now had everyone's attention fixed on them, not on Seth and Lucy. "Guys, this is not the place and it's certainly not the time for whatever you've got going on. Why don't you take it outside?" Hunter said. It was an instruction, not a suggestion.

Without saying anything, Alexa turned and marched towards the nearest exit, Dean trailing behind her, trying to do his best to calm down.

Pushing her way through the double doors, Alexa found herself in an empty hallway. When Dean followed her through the doors, he got the first word in. "Look, this is that asshole Finn's fault."

"I didn't hear Finn claiming I'd move in with him," Alexa snapped, rounding on him. "You were the one who did that."

Dean's control on his temper finally failed him. "Yeah, I said you were going to move in with me before I asked you. What a fucking awful human being I am," he yelled at her. "Why don't you have someone fucking shoot me? It's the only punishment that seems to fit such a heinous crime."

"Don't yell at me, Dean," Alexa warned him. "I'm not going to stand here and take that from you."

"Well fucking don't stand here then," he screamed at her, his cheeks turning red. "If you don't want to be here; if you don't want to move in with me; if you don't want to be in this relationship; why don't you just fuck off?"

Alexa slapped him hard across the face and yelled right back at him. "You want me to fuck off? I'll be glad to."

Just then, the doors crashed open again. Roman and Lucy came rushing through. "Guys, calm the hell down," Roman said. "We can hear you shouting in there. What's going on?"

"Nothing, I'm out of here," Alexa said. Tears born from both anger and hurt were running down her cheeks. Before anyone could try and stop her, she ran back through the double doors.

"I'll go after her," Lucy said quickly, and she also disappeared.

"Fuck!" Dean raged, punching the wooden door to an office that he happened to be standing next to. "This was all fucking Balor's fault," he protested to Roman.

"What the hell happened?" Roman asked. His tone was hardly comforting. "You were really screaming at Alexa, and swearing at her. That's not cool, man."

"She was giving me shit, when all I was doing was defending myself. Finn was trying to needle me. I guess this played into his hands perfectly," he added as it dawned on him. "I'll cripple the little prick."

"You're going nowhere, and you're doing nothing to anyone," Roman said firmly, leaving no room for argument on either point. "For Christ's sake, Dean. You always have to take things too far, don't you? Why couldn't you just calm yourself down and apologise to her? All everyone wants to do is have a good time and you have to go off like this. What was she even mad at you for, anyway?"

Dean sighed deeply and rested his head against the office door for a moment, summoning all of his willpower to help him calm down. "She was mad because she heard me tell Finn she was moving in with me. I haven't actually asked her yet. But I didn't know she was walking up behind me."

"If you haven't asked her, why did you tell him she was moving in?" Roman asked, scrunching his face up in confusion.

"Because he was running his mouth at me about our relationship meaning nothing to Alexa. He even called her a ring rat, trying to get me to hit him. I wasn't going to fall for that…"

"No, you decided to do something equally stupid and risk ruining the relationship yourself," Roman pointed out, shaking his head.

That reality was still sinking in for Dean. He really didn't want it to end, and certainly not over something as stupid as Finn Balor trying to bait him for a reaction. Roman was right, he had made the situation much worse than it ever should have been. And he had gone way too far off the deep end, screaming at Alexa and telling her to fuck off. "What a fucking disaster," he sighed. "I told her to fuck off, and now she has. I obviously didn't want that to happen. Now what am I supposed to do?"

It was impossible for Roman not to feel for his friend. Even though the mess was of his own making, Dean was obviously upset about what had happened. That told Roman just how much Alexa really meant to him. The truth was that Dean was just too hot headed at times, and she hadn't been with him long enough to know when to calm him down instead of having a go and firing him up even more. Right now, the priority for Roman was to let things cool off. "Come up to my room," he suggested. "We'll order some drinks in."

"I meant what am I going to do about Alexa?"

"I know you what you meant, but that's out of your hands right now. Hopefully Lucy can talk her round, at least enough to get you a chance to apologise and maybe fix things. I think she will; it's obvious Alexa loves you." He thought better of making mention of the fact that Lucy was spending the moments after her engagement consoling Alexa instead of celebrating her amazing moment.

"It is?" Dean asked. Right then, he needed the reassurance.

"Why do you think she was so upset?" Roman asked pointedly. "It's easy to tell she loves you just by how she looks at you." He gestured towards the opposite end of the hallway with his head. "Come on, let's find a way around that way so we don't have to go back through the room."

"Thanks, Rome," Dean said, falling in step beside his brother. "I hope she's okay, and Lucy can get her to calm down enough to talk to me."

"I'm sure she will," Roman said positively, hoping that his confidence was not misplaced.


	24. Chapter 24

"I still can't believe he yelled at me like that," Alexa said angrily. She was pacing around her hotel room, while Lucy sat on the bed.

"Lexi, can you just sit down?" Lucy pleaded. "What's happened has happened; you're just working yourself up even more about it. I want you to actually tell me what went on instead of ranting about Dean."

Alexa stood and looked at her for a moment, then relented and sat down on the bed next to her friend, reasoning that Lucy didn't have to be there trying to help her. Taking out her anger on her was not on.

"That's better," Lucy said. "Now, take it from the start, because I know you guys were fine with each other when you came over to congratulate me and Seth."

After taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly to relax herself, Alexa began her side of the story. "Dean said he was going to get drinks in to celebrate. After he left, we were all looking at your ring, which is amazing by the way. A couple of minutes went by and he hadn't come back, so I looked over to the bar to see what was keeping him. That's when I saw Finn was over there. I knew Dean had had a few drinks, so it wasn't hard to imagine something going off between them. Obviously I didn't want that to happen, so I went over there."

"Okay, then what happened?" Lucy prompted.

"Just when I was approaching them, I heard Dean boasting to Finn that I was moving in with him. We've not even discussed it, Lucy. It's never been mentioned, not once. And there he was telling Finn it was happening. So I said something like, 'I'm what?' and Finn started laughing at Dean. I'm not dumb, I can see why that pissed him off, but I was pissed off too that he was taking me for granted like that, thinking he could tell someone we don't even like that I'm moving in with him, before we've even talked about it."

"Then Dean kicked off because you were angry with him, when he thought you should have been angry with Balor instead," Lucy guessed.

"Pretty much. He was really screaming at me Lucy. It was so far out of line."

Lucy grimaced, deciding it was best to speak frankly. "Honestly, I think you're both out of line on this one."

"Me?" Alexa asked loudly. "How on Earth am I out of line here?"

"Take a breath, and look at it from Dean's point of view for a minute. Finn's in his face, talking shit and being a cunt. I think we can safely say that was what was happening. He was probably running his mouth about how happy him and Renee are, or some other crap that nobody cares about. So, Dean tries to make a point by telling him that you're moving in with him. Yes, it's wrong to do that without talking to you first, I agree. But you've gone overboard on the whole 'taking you for granted' thing. I don't think that's why he did it at all."

"Why did he do it then?" Alexa asked skeptically. "Give me one other reason why he would have said that to Finn."

Lucy looked to the heavens for a second before fixing her gaze back on Alexa. "Because he loves you, for fuck's sake."

"What?" Alexa asked, taken aback.

"Look, let me level with you," Lucy said patiently. "Dean is a pain in the arse sometimes. When I first joined The Shield, I couldn't stand the fucking guy. He comes across sometimes almost like a big kid in the way he talks and doesn't think through what he's saying, which means he can be anything from stupid to annoying at any given moment, often without warning. But underneath that, and I know you already know this, once you get to know him, he's a very loyal, caring person. He cares about you, Lexi. A fucking blind man could see that. He didn't tell Finn you were moving in just to make a point, and he wasn't taking you for granted. I believe he said it because he wants it to be true. And I believe he got angry because he read your reaction like you were rejecting him. Dean doesn't know how to deal with rejection, after his childhood. You should know that, too. Honestly, you kind of pushed him into the way he blew up at you. I know that's not what you want to hear from me right now, but it's how I see it. I'm friends with both of you, so I'm not going to take sides on this."

"I wouldn't want you to take sides," Alexa mumbled. Lucy's words had hit home, and now that she thought it through, she could see the logic in them. Maybe she had reacted much too badly to what Dean had said to Finn. It was obvious that Balor had only been over there trying to cause trouble, and boy had he managed it, thanks to her. Yes, she realised, she was also in the wrong on this thing. "I fucked up, didn't I?" she said quietly.

"Yep," Lucy said gently, giving her hand a squeeze. "And so did Dean. And you guys had a fight. That's what happens sometimes between couples. God knows Seth and I have fights, thanks to my stupid temper most of the time. Fighting is unfortunately a part of being together. What matters is that you talk it out and make sure you're okay afterwards. I remember my dad telling me the rule my parents have always had is to never sleep on an argument. Always fix things before it goes that far. It's always worked for them."

Alexa nodded her understanding. "I need to talk to Dean."

"Yeah, you do. I'm sure he's with Roman right now. If I was you, I'd call him and get him to come up here. I'm willing to make a bet he's as keen to talk it out as you are right now."

Alexa nodded again. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'll call him. Lucy?"

"What?"

"Thank you," Alexa said earnestly. "And I'm sorry for ruining your engagement celebration. You should be down there with Seth and Clem, not up here with me."

"You don't have to thank me," Lucy said with a gracious smile. "But if you're going to be okay, I would like to get back to my future husband and my future daughter."

"Of course." They exchanged a hug, then Alexa walked Lucy to the door. "Thanks again, Lucy. I really appreciate you talking some sense into me."

"No worries. Just be sure to make up with each other, or I'll bang your heads together," she added on her way towards the elevators.

Managing a chuckle, Alexa closed the door and took out her phone. Calling Dean's number, she got a message telling her that his phone was switched off; hardly a surprise, since he kept it off half the time anyway. Thankfully, she had Roman's number, and he answered after only a couple of rings.

"Alexa, hey. Are you okay?"

"Hi, Roman. I'm okay, thank you. Is Dean with you?"

"Yeah."

"Could you put him on, please?"

"Sure."

There was a brief pause while the phone changed hands. Alexa was glad that Dean apparently wasn't still mad to the point where he would refuse to talk to her. His greeting made her feel even better still.

"Hello, darlin'. I'm sorry about screaming at you before. I went too far being that aggressive with you and telling you to fuck off."

"I'm sorry too, Dean. Lucy made me realise that I seriously overreacted to what I heard you say to Finn. Look, can you come to our room so we can talk? We shouldn't be doing this on the phone."

"Yeah, I'll come up now."

"Okay, see you in a minute," Alexa said. By the time she ended the call, there was a smile on her face. She already felt confident that things were going to be okay after their first serious fight as a couple. Who knew, maybe they might even come out of it feeling closer as a result? Wouldn't that be a shame for Finn fucking Balor?

A few minutes later, she heard Dean putting his key card into the lock on their door. As she made her way over there to greet him, he walked in and made sure to get the first word. "I know I just said it on the phone, but I have to apologise for yelling at you the way I did. Getting pissed off with Balor isn't an excuse, and neither is the fact that I've had a few beers. I'm sorry, darlin'."

"It's okay, baby," Alexa said, giving him a tight embrace. Just seeing him again now made her realise how much she would have missed him if things had really gone wrong and they had broken up. She would have been heartbroken. It felt so good when he wrapped his arms around her and held her. "I'm sorry, too," she said, resting his head on her chest. "I think I know now why you said that to Balor about me moving in with you."

"It was because I really want you to," Dean said, resting his chin on her head in an affectionate gesture. "I know I hadn't asked you, but I was going to. I had even thought about doing it tonight. I know that sounds like bullshit now, after what's happened, but…"

"I believe you," she told him softly. "And my answer is yes, I will move in with you. I never would have said no; I just didn't like the idea that you thought you could make decisions for me. But, again, I know that wasn't how you were thinking."

"No, it really wasn't. Honestly, I was just doing my best not to punch that fucker's lights out. It was so tempting."

"Well I'm glad you didn't." Alexa pulled away slightly and looked up into his eyes. "You know what I was thinking while you were on your way from Roman's room?"

"What, darlin'?"

"That maybe it might even be a good thing that we had our first fight. Yes, it was horrible, but we've made up with each other. I feel like it might make us stronger as a couple. Or is that just me being stupid?"

Dean gave her a peck on the lips. "I don't think that's stupid; you're probably right. I felt so bad after you walked away earlier, it made me realise how much you mean to me. Not that you didn't mean a lot before…" he started to add.

"I know what you mean," she assured him with a sweet smile. Stretching up, she gave him a kiss of her own. "I think we should go back down to the party."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Not only do we deserve to be celebrating as much as anyone else down there, I think we should stick it to Finn and Renee as well. You know they're down there laughing at us, thinking they're real clever that they caused us to have an argument."

Dean smiled. "Okay, we'll go back down. But there's one thing I want us to agree to before we do."

"What's that?"

"We need to stop talking about Finn and Renee. I'm not going down there to prove anything to them. Fuck them. I'm going down there because I want to have a good time with you."

Nodding her agreement, Alexa said, "You're absolutely right. We should even give them the satisfaction of talking about them. From now on, if they say or do anything like he did tonight, we just ignore them and walk away. Deal?"

"Deal," Dean agreed, sealing it with another kiss.

"I bet I need to clean myself up first. Has my eyeliner run from when I cried?" she asked self consciously.

"Yeah, but you're the hottest girl in the world," Dean said, with a hint of the gruffness his voice took on when he was getting turned on.

Alexa touched a finger to her lips in the traditional pose for being deep in thought. "You know, the party will go on all night. We don't exactly have to rush back down there."

"Now you're talking." Needing no second invitation, Dean scooped her off her feet, hands under her butt, and carried her over to the bed.


	25. Chapter 25

"Bloody hell, you look rough," was Lucy's greeting to Alexa when the shorter woman entered the women's locker room before Raw.

"Tell me about it. I'm hanging," Alexa mumbled, trudging her way over to the empty locker beside her partner.

"You were up late, then?" Lucy and Seth hadn't stayed for much of the Wrestlemania after party, since they had Clementine with them. Even though Clem had been taken up to the room for bed by their nanny, getting wrecked while having a child in their care was not the right thing to do. Besides, they had needed to be up early to get her ready to go to the airport with the nanny, so that she was back home and ready to return to school on Tuesday.

"Late, or early; depends on how you look at it. After the argument, we both felt like getting drunk, and boy did we. I seriously can't remember going back to the room."

While hanging up her ring attire below her locker, Lucy looked around the locker room. It was obvious to her that she, not Alexa was in the minority. The atmosphere was flat, the room quiet. There were clearly a lot of sore heads. "Dean's hanging out of his arse, too?" she guessed, knowing what the answer would be.

"Yeah."

"And you guys are okay now?" That was the important question.

Alexa had slumped down onto the bench. She looked up at Lucy and managed a smile, grateful to have the support of a real friend. "We're good. Actually, I think we might even come out of it stronger than before. Thank you for being there last night and talking sense into me. It means a lot that you've got my back."

"That's what friends are for. I know you'd do the same for me. Speaking of having your back, I went to see Steph earlier."

"Oh?" Alexa enquired with raised eyebrows. She knew that Lucy had a lot of clout with WWE's higher-ups, thanks to her status as Stephanie's chosen one. However, what that had to do with having her back was a mystery.

Finished arranging her things, Lucy sat down. "I'm sick of all this shit with you and Dean and Finn and Renee. The pettiness is fucking stupid, and last night it caused a serious row for you. The way it's going, it's only a matter of time before someone gets knocked out. I know first hand from that time I hit Sasha that they don't take kindly to that kind of thing. So, I decided to see if a message could be sent."

"A message?" Alexa couldn't decide if she would have liked to have been in the room for the conversation, or if she would have preferred it not to have happened.

"I explained to Steph what happened last night between Finn and Dean, and told her that it's certainly not the first time that kind of thing has happened. She said that Hunter hadn't been happy at you and Dean for arguing at the party, so I told her it was all started by Finn, who quickly did one when you guys started getting heated with each other."

"What did she say?"

"She wasn't happy, needless to say. I asked her if there was anything she could do to send a message that she was onto him, and that he had better cut the shit. She said to leave it with her, so hopefully she'll either do something herself or have Hunter step in. One way or another, the fucking guy needs to get the message about growing up."

Alexa frankly wasn't sure if Stephanie wading in would make the situation better or worse. It would depend on how Finn and Renee reacted to it. But she did appreciate Lucy using her clout to try and get the situation dealt with before someone ended up going too far, resulting in violence. "Thanks, Lucy. It would definitely be good if she managed to get those two off our backs."

"Let's hope so. When we were just wrapping up, Hunter came in. He told me about the plans for us tonight. They wanted to do something good with us, since the crowd will obviously be white hot with all the Brits in. We've got to work out the specifics with TJ, but I don't doubt it will go over well." TJ was retired wrestler, now producer, Tyson Kidd.

Despite her hangover, Alexa managed to perk up a bit. "Don't keep me in suspense. What's the deal?"

* * *

The second segment on Raw began with Bayley coming to the ring, to a rapturous reception from the rowdy, predominantly British crowd. After a minute or so of them singing, asking her if she would be their girl, she was allowed to speak.

"Yes, guys, I'll definitely be your girl," she said with a big grin. A loud cheer was the response. "Honestly, I have to thank you for cheering me up with that amazing welcome, because I've been feeling pretty low since last night. As I'm sure you all saw, I didn't manage to win the triple threat match against Emma and Charlotte for the WWE Women's Championship at Wrestlemania. But, at the same time, I didn't exactly lose it. Emma won by making Charlotte tap out to the Emma Lock. Since Emma didn't beat me, I feel like I deserve another shot. That's why I had to come out here: to request a one on one match with Emma for the Women's Championship, right here, tonight."

The response from the fans certainly indicated that they approved of the idea. Their cheers quickly turned to boos when Paige's music began to play.

"What do these two want?" Cole groaned as Paige and Becky Lynch walked out onto the stage.

Graves said, "The last time we saw Paige and Becky, they'd just finished destroying Twisted Thorne. Last night, they put both Lucy and Alexa through commentary tables after losing the tag team match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship."

"I thought these two were better than that," Booker T said. "It was a disgusting display. They should be ashamed of themselves."

"Whether you like it or not, you can't deny that what Becky and Paige did was impressive," Graves countered. "They might have lost the match, but they certainly didn't look like the losers when they were walking out of the Superdome. Twisted Thorne left on stretchers, as I remember it. Leaving those two ladies in that state is certainly not an easy thing to pull off."

"None of that explains why they're out here now," Cole pointed out. Becky and Paige were now in the ring, and the Irish woman had a microphone.

"Shut up and you might find out," Graves said dryly.

"Bayley, do us all a favour and shut your mouth," Becky said nastily. "No one cares about you, and no one cares about what you want. We're the ones people came to see tonight, which is why we went to Kurt Angle earlier today and requested… No, we _demanded_ , a rematch with Twisted Thorne for the Women's Tag Team Championships tonight."

Becky handed the microphone to Paige, who took over the narrative. "That's right, we demanded a rematch with Twisted Thorne, and do you know what Kurt told us?"

Bayley shrugged, indicating that she had no idea.

"He told us to prove that we deserved it. He told us to make a statement. So, that's what we're out here to do." Without pause, Paige smashed the microphone into Bayley's face, knocking her down. The fans howled their disapproval, not that it was likely to make any difference.

Both Paige and Becky set about beating Bayley down, each hitting their finishing moves while the commentators lamented their actions. Just after the Bexploder had been delivered, the crowd suddenly began to cheer.

"Here come Twisted Thorne!" Cole called out as the tag team champions ran down the entrance ramp.

Lucy and Alexa slid into the ring. Lucy got straight in Paige's face, delivering several stiff right hands, the last of which sent her flying over the top rope. Meanwhile, Alexa had tackled Becky to the ground before furiously pounding her with right hands of her own. With that done, she hauled the Irishwoman to her feet and launched her between the ropes to the floor.

Seeing Twisted Thorne acting as a genuine face team for the first time, and doing it to help Bayley, had the fans on their feet. After the brief period of action was over, they began chanting, "Twisted Thorne!"

While Alexa checked on Bayley, who was down in a corner of the ring, Kurt Angle's music began to play. Raw's General Manager came out onto the stage, looking less than pleased with what had just happened. "Becky, Paige, what do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

Over by the ring announcer's position, Becky snatched up a microphone and delivered a quick-witted response. "We're making a statement."

"Very clever," Kurt said, not impressed. "When I said make a statement, I meant by winning matches and proving you deserve another opportunity, not that you should come out here and attack Bayley. So, you get no title match."

As the crowd cheered, both Becky and Paige reacted angrily, complaining to each other about the unfairness of the decision.

"On the other hand," Kurt went on. "Bayley, before you were interrupted, I think you were actually making quite a good point. You were not involved in the decision last night at Wrestlemania, so I think maybe you do deserve a one on one match with Emma, and what better time to have it than here tonight, in the main event?"

The roar from the fans confirmed that they agreed. In the ring, Lucy was shown congratulating Bayley, who had been helped to her feet by Alexa. By contrast, Becky and Paige seemed to be angry with Bayley for getting what she wanted, while they had been denied the match they had wanted.

"What an announcement that is!" Cole called out. "We're going to see Emma and Bayley for the WWE Women's Championship, and it's going to happen tonight on Raw!"

* * *

Everyone in the arena had been right behind Bayley throughout her match against Emma, not least because the current champion had made the most of her title run to increase her standing in the company significantly with some impressive performances. In the process, she had gotten herself some heat as a heel, which of course played out well in a match against everyone's favourite hugger.

When Bayley managed to hit her finishing move, the Bayley-to-Belly suplex, the crowd were on their feet, roaring their delight that a new champion was about to be crowned. They counted along with the referee, but just after he counted two he mysteriously slid backwards out of the ring under the bottom rope.

"What happened?" Cole yelled. The camera panned out to show that Paige was the one responsible for pulling him out of the ring before he could get the three. "Paige and Becky Lynch are out here! Bayley had the match won, but Paige pulled the referee out of the ring!"

Paige wasn't done, either. She punched the referee square in the face, knocking him down, and apparently out. With that done, she and Becky were free to enter the ring and attack Bayley.

"This is not right!" Booker protested as Bayley did her best to fight off her two assailants. The odds being against her ensured that she didn't put up a fight for long.

"Paige Turner!" Graves called as the English woman hit her finisher on the challenger. "Even I have to admit this is not fair. Bayley might have had the match won, she might not, but Becky and Paige are way out of line attacking her like this."

As earlier in the night, the crowd's boos turned to cheers. Alexa and Lucy were shown running down to the ring again.

"Here come Twisted Thorne, just like earlier tonight!" Booker exclaimed.

Alexa was first into the ring. This time, she went after Paige, delivering a dropkick which took her off her feet. Following close behind, Lucy threw a powerful clothesline at Becky just as they Irish woman turned around, in time to catch it flush on the jaw. The impact made a loud crack. The fans particularly loved the audible impact, managing to cheer even louder than they had been before.

After taking the dropkick from Alexa, Paige had rolled under the bottom rope on the back side of the ring, attempting to escape. Wanting to do some more damage, Alexa quickly went after her and they started brawling on the outside.

Attention shifted back to the ring, where Emma was now back on her feet and not happy at all about seeing Twisted Thorne out in the arena. She walked up behind Lucy, who was stomping Becky in the corner of the ring and aggressively spun her around by the shoulder. The fans were not happy to see their undisputed favourite being treated that way, but they knew where it might end for Emma.

While the Australian angrily ran her mouth, trying to order Lucy out of the ring, Lucy looked out at the fans, seemingly trying to decide based on their reaction what she should do next. Emma forced the issue by ending her rant by shoving her in chest and remonstrating with her to get out of the ring. She got the opposite response: a stiff right hand to the face that knocked her clean out.

The champion was down, but Becky was back up. She threw herself at Lucy and they both crashed between the ropes to the floor. There were now two fights going on outside the ring, while the two women actually in the match were down inside the ring.

Too late to see any of the outside interference, the referee was starting to come around, slowing making it back to his feet and crawling under the bottom rope into the ring.

While Becky and Lucy and Paige and Alexa all battled their way up the entrance ramp towards the back, Emma and Bayley were both getting up. Everyone in the arena was standing, loving the action but having no idea what was going to happen next.

To the crowd's horror, Emma was the one who managed to get the first move in, taking Bayley down and putting her in the Emma Lock – a move that had beaten everyone who had been in it over the past couple of months, including Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania.

With the fans urging her on, Bayley desperately tried to reach the nearby ropes. For a moment it looked like she would not be able to endure the pain and would have to tap out, but then she managed to find some superhuman endurance. Crying out in agony, she crawled a little closer to the ropes, then managed to stretch a hand out and grab the bottom one.

The groggy referee was there to make the call, starting his count to signal a rope break. Emma legally released the hold at the count of four, but had the damage been done?

In a great deal of pain, Bayley crawled into the corner of the ring, propping herself up against the bottom turnbuckle. Seeing an opportunity to close out the match, Emma sprinted at her, throwing herself through the air in an attempt to deliver a cross body. Unfortunately for her, Bayley moved out of the way at the last moment.

While Emma struggled in the corner, winded by her self-inflicted impact with the turnbuckle, Bayley took up a position behind her, poised and ready to strike. Emma slowly got back up and staggered out of the corner, only to be grabbed in a familiar positon by the challenger.

"Bayley-to-Belly!" Cole called as the finisher connected.

The crowd erupted, sensing the title changing hands. They joined in with the count after Bayley made the cover.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

"Yes! We've got a new champion!" Booker yelled.

"Bayley did it!" Graves added. "I can't say she did it alone, but she did it."

"Oh, please," Cole objected. "Bayley didn't ask for any help. Twisted Thorne only came out to stop Becky and Paige from interfering."

Graves said, "Something tells me Emma's not going to see it that way."

Uninterested in the argument, Booker was focusing on Bayley, who was celebrating with her newly-won title belt. "Right now, it doesn't matter. Bayley pinned Emma in the middle of the ring, and she is the new WWE Women's Champion. What a night this has been!"


	26. Chapter 26

After getting back to their hotel room, Dean and Alexa had started discussing their plans for the next few days. With the post-Wrestlemania Raw now out of the way, everyone on the roster had the rest of the week off to recover from the most frantic few days of the year.

Rest wasn't likely to feature highly on Dean or Alexa's agenda, though. They had made plans to go to her apartment in Florida and start packing her things, ready for her to move into his house in Vegas. It had been decided that she would move all of her clothes and her most personal possessions across the country, but she hadn't reached a decision yet on whether to leave her furniture in the apartment and rent the place out, or if she should sell the furniture and put the apartment on the market.

"I suppose I should get a real estate agent to give me some advice on what I might be able to get for rent, or what I might get if I sold up," she said. She was standing in front of the hotel room's mirror, arranging her makeup products ready for the morning. It would be one less job to do when she got up. "I certainly wouldn't want to sell at a loss," she added.

"Yeah, property prices have gone down in a lot of areas these past couple of years," Dean agreed. He was sitting on the bed, leaning down to rummage through a case that was open on the floor. Luckily for him, since it was Alexa's case he was going through, she couldn't see him in the mirror. He was looking for something specific, knowing that it was in there somewhere.

"That's what I was thinking. There's no sense in making a loss on such a nice little apartment. I might as well keep it and make money from rent, then maybe I can sell in the future when the market recovers."

Getting up off the bed, Dean walked around to her. "I like it when you talk like a businesswoman. Maybe you could have a new character as the General Manager in the future?" He came and stood right behind her, and she instinctively nestled against him a little.

"You like that, huh?" she purred, looking at him in the mirror rather than turning to face him.

"I do. But you know what I don't like?"

"What, baby?" Alexa asked, unsure where this was heading.

"My girl going round telling people I'm a big softy."

Unclear if he was serious at this point, Alexa decided to defend herself. "I only said that to Clementine so she would feel more at ease with you."

"Is that a fact? Well, either way, I think I need prove I'm not a softy, and at the same time, there really should be a punishment for saying that kind of thing."

"What do you mean?" Alexa asked, but even as she said it she saw the answer. From behind his back, Dean had produced the silky pink bra. She knew right away what he was going to do with it, especially since it had been rolled up on its width.

Stretching the silky material out, Dean reached over her head with it, holding it near to her mouth. "Open up," he instructed her.

Alexa knew that she could opt out of the sex game before it got started by refusing him right then and there, and that he probably wouldn't mind. After all, he wouldn't want her to be uncomfortable with something they were doing. But, the truth was that she didn't feel particularly uncomfortable about the prospect of having a gag in her mouth. The vulnerability it had caused her to feel the previous time he had gotten her in that situation had been curiously enjoyable. For that reason, she simply obeyed him and opened her mouth.

"Good girl," Dean said, happy that she was up for what he wanted to do. A bit of kinky sex from time to time was a lot of fun. Her Goddess persona came to mind. She had loved being in charge that night. Well, now it was his turn again. He placed the silky gag in her mouth, liking the way it filled it to the extent that she couldn't even close her glossy pink lips around it.

"Mmmph," Alexa groaned as he lifted her hair out of the way and secured a tight knot behind her neck. The strange rush she felt notwithstanding, the gag was not particularly comfortable. Tied as tightly as it was, it pulled against the corners of her mouth. Looking at herself in the mirror, she realised just how well stuffed her mouth was by the material. It was no wonder she could hardly make a legible sound.

Still standing pressed against her, Dean rested his head on her right shoulder for a moment so that they shared the same eyeline into the mirror. The sight already had him hardening nicely. There was just something about the way she looked with a gag between those beautiful lips that he found incredibly hot. "Doesn't that look beautiful?" he asked her softly.

"Mmm," she mumbled, looking into his eyes in the mirror. Trying to play along, she wanted to look submissive for him.

"Of course it does," he said with a smile, taking her muffled noise as a positive response.

"Now," he said quietly into her ear. "I want to tie your wrists, but if you're not comfortable with that, I won't."

"Okay," Alexa tried to say. She trusted him, and figured being bound might enhance the experience for both of them. If she wasn't comfortable after he had done it, she felt sure she would manage to get the message across. Gladly, she soon found that he had the same thing in mind.

"You need to nod or shake your head, darlin'," he pointed out. When she nodded her agreement, he went on. "We need to come up with a safe word before we go any further."

"Hmmm?" Alexa asked. A safe word was not going to work for very obvious reasons.

"Maybe a safe word isn't the best description, but you know what I mean. If you're not comfortable or you want me to untie you, you need to be able to let me know. How about this: instead of a safe word, just start wriggling around like crazy and making a bunch of noise."

"Mmmkmm," Alexa agreed. Even before the fun started, she was biting down on the gag, trying to get it to feel a bit more comfortable in her mouth.

What she was doing didn't go unnoticed by Dean. Far from being sympathetic, he found it attractive that he had her so well silenced. Then he considered that there was something else that needed to happen before he could tie her wrists. "This top needs to come off," he said, looking at the black Twisted Thorne shirt she had slipped into for the journey back to the hotel.

Alexa decided it would be more submissive to let him undress her, so she just raised her arms to make it easier for him and gave a consensual little moan into the silk.

"Very good girl," he said approvingly. She was sure doing a good job of turning him on with the way she was acting.

After he removed her shirt and tossed it aside onto the bed, Alexa was left standing there in her black bra. "Mmmm?" she asked with raised eyebrows, still making eye contact in the mirror, obviously wanting to know if he wanted the bra to come off also.

"You look sexy with it on, but better with it off," Dean said, working on unfastening it. In moments, it was also removed and tossed onto the bed on top of her shirt, leaving her pert little breasts exposed.

Alexa felt a little shy, looking at herself in a state of undress with a gag tied in her mouth. She supposed it was because she knew how much her man liked the image himself. She noticed her cheeks reddening a little above the pink material.

Dean noticed it too, finding it to be one of the cutest things he had ever seen. Her body was certainly nothing to blush about, that was for damn sure. A girl didn't have to have big tits to look stunning. For him, Alexa's were perfect. Leaning down, he brushed her neck with his lips in the gentlest kiss he could manage. "Don't blush, Little Miss Bliss. You look stunning. Words could never do you justice."

"Mmph," she gasped, tingling at his touch. She wished she could tell him to do that some more, but of course it was not possible. But then, at the same time, the frustration of being unable to talk was key to the experience.

"Stay there, darlin'. Don't move," Dean said gently. "I need to get something for your wrists."

When he moved away, Alexa immediately missed the feeling of him pressed up against her. Not wanting to defy him in even a small way, she stood in place, trying to see in the mirror what he was doing. She could hear him rummaging through a case, but his body blocked her sight of what he was doing. Her eyes returned to the gag. She watched herself try and work it further into her mouth so that she could try and close it, thinking that might give her a bit less discomfort. Unfortunately, the silk was too thick and wide for her to do anything with it.

"Gmmmph," she groaned in frustration, feeling saliva starting to collect in her mouth. Swallowing properly was impossible with something like this in her mouth; she had learned that the first time, when she had ended up drooling everywhere. That was no doubt going to happen again, and she would be powerless to do anything about it.

"Hey, sshhh," Dean said reproachfully as he walked back over to her. She recognised the object in his hand. It was the tie he had worn when they had attended the Hall of Fame ceremony a few days earlier. "Hands behind your back," he instructed.

Alexa put her wrists together behind her back. Happily, since she was so flexible, it didn't give her much pain in her shoulders. Feeling the tie being wound around and between her wrists a couple of times, her breathing got a little heavier. Her mouth being stuffed with silk was only part of the reason. The increased sense of helplessness had her heart racing, in a good way. Although she had never experienced something like this before, she trusted Dean to take care of her, and to make sure she enjoyed it as much as he did.

Happy with his handiwork, Dean tied a knot in the tie, making sure to do it tight enough that it wouldn't come free, but not tight enough to hurt her. Causing her pain was not part of the deal. With the way he had wound the tie around her wrists, he could see no way she would be able to wriggle her hands out of it. "You okay?" he asked, raising his eyes to meet hers in the mirror.

"Mmm hmm," she acknowledged.

Since he had seen her struggling with the gag, Dean decided to check if it was secure. "Still nice and tight?" he asked as he tested it with his fingers.

Alexa grunted feebly to demonstrate her inability to speak. To her frustration and Dean's satisfaction, her struggles had achieved nothing at all. Now that she had been as compliant as could be while he undressed and bound her, she turned around and looked up at him, trying to give him puppy dog eyes.

"You look stunning, but that's not going to work," he told her. "Remember what you said about being in charge when Goddess Alexa comes out to play? Well, tonight it's my turn." With that, he scooped her off her feet and lay her gently down the bed, lying on her back. "You just lie there for a minute. I've got something I need to do."

Lying on her back meant that Alexa's weight was on her wrists; not a pleasant feeling. She rolled to the side slightly, managing to get herself into a better position. Resting her head to one side on the pillow, she was able to watch what Dean was doing. To her surprise, she saw him pick up the room service menu and start looking through it. This is hardly the time for a three course meal, she thought.

"Perfect," Dean muttered after a moment. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed, back to her, and picked up the phone to call his order through.

"Mmmpph?" Alexa squealed indignantly, wanting to know what he was doing. His response was to turn and look her, touch a finger to his lips and tell her to shush.

While she waited, Alexa decided that as his back was turned, she could try and struggle against the restraint securing her wrists. Just because he wanted her bound and she happened to enjoy it didn't mean that she wasn't going to try and get free. It was part of the game, after all. Unfortunately, she soon realised, it wasn't going to happen. He had secured her too well, leaving her totally unable to move or separate her wrists. It struck her as surprising that her predicament wasn't more painful.

Dean's call to room service was connected and she heard him place his order. Now she had something of an explanation for his strange behaviour. Her heart started to beat faster again in anticipation.

After replacing the handset, he turned around to face her again. There was an excited grin on his face. "Just a few minutes, they said. I hope they hurry up."

Alexa just lay there looking at him, feeling saliva escape the corner of her mouth for the first time. The silk was already damp from it, due to her inability to swallow properly. That was one aspect of the situation she was in that she really didn't like, but she couldn't do anything about it. Happily, Dean took care of it for her.

"I'll get that for you," he said generously, picking up her discarded shirt and using it to wipe the drool off her chin. "If you lie on your back properly, that won't happen so much."

"Mm cmmnt," she mumbled, trying move her wrists a bit so that he would get the message that she couldn't lie on them. To compromise, she stayed lying the way she was, but moved her head so that she was looking up at the ceiling.

Dean lay down on the bed next to her, propping his head up a hand to look at her. He was acting as if it was a night like any other, when they would lie in bed and talk for an hour or more before going to sleep. "From time to time, even I find myself knowing interesting facts," he said matter of fact. "For example, I happen to know that a lot of women wish their men would pay more attention to their breasts during sex. Would you agree with that?"

"Yes, definitely," Alexa tried to say, feeling that rush again. She hoped to convey her eagerness with her eyes, since she couldn't effectively do it verbally.

"That's what I thought," he said with a nod. Reaching over with his free hand, he began to slowly massage one of them. "Yours are such perfect ones, too, darlin'. Fuckin' beautiful, like the rest of you."

Alexa felt herself squirm involuntarily in pleasure at his touch. Doing so made her focus for the first time on the fact that her legs were not bound. If she really wanted to, she could start kicking him or try to get up and run away. A few minutes earlier, before this had all started, she wouldn't have imagined a situation where she wanted to be tied up. But now, that was how she felt. If she was going to be put in helpless situation, she wanted to go all the way. But how to get Dean to realise what she was thinking?

Enjoying the feel of her breast in his hand, it took Dean a moment to realise that she had started wriggling her legs around. Then his first thought was that she was trying to safe word. "You okay?" he asked with some concern. "Safe word?"

"Nmmm," she said strongly, shaking her head. She raised her legs and wiggled her feet, and, raising her head to look at them, she said, "Mmm lmmmgs."

"Oh," Dean said with a broad grin as the penny dropped. "You want me to tie your ankles up too?" It would work until the time came for sex, he thought.

"Mmmm." She nodded yes and rested her head back down on the pillow.

"Okay, Goddess. Your word is my command," he said, not hiding the taunting element behind his choice of phrase as he got off the bed. "There must be something around here I can use."

He stood for a moment, thinking through the items he had in his case. Then his eyes settled on the complimentary bathrobes that came with the room, which were handing up in the open wardrobe. Walking over there, he examined one of the cords that would wrap around the wearer's waist to keep the robe closed. He was in luck; the cord was detachable. He pulled it free, then walked back over to the bed, showing it to her as he did so. "I think this should do the job."

Alexa was breathing hard again in anticipation of what it was going to feel like to be totally bound and at his mercy. As he sat down on the bed and began work on tying her ankles together, wrapping the cord around and between them as he had with the tie around her wrists, she had to bite down on her gag to stop herself groaning in pleasure. She didn't want to give him that satisfaction so easily.

"There we are," Dean said after he tied a knot in the cord. He couldn't have even begun to describe what a turn on it was that she had actually asked to be bound some more. A large part of him wanted to fuck her right then and there, but there was foreplay to come first. "Comfy?" he asked as he moved back down the bed to lie next to her again.

"Mmm hmm." Alexa tested her range of movement, thrilled to find it at an absolute minimum. Dean went back to work massaging her breasts, and she closed her eyes, all the better to focus on the pleasant sensations that coursed through her, and also to keep her laboured breathing under control.

After a couple of minutes of this, there was a loud knock at the door. A male voice called out, "Room service!"

"Just a minute!" Dean yelled back as he got off the bed once more. He grabbed a few bucks from the nightstand to tip the guy and made his way to the door, which thankfully didn't have line of sight to the bed.

Alexa lay there listening to the brief conversation at the door, making sure to stay absolutely silent. She found herself imagining the conversation that would ensue if the guy walked into the room far enough to see her. Talk about awkward!

The door banged shut and Dean walked over with his order: a crepe filled with whipped cream and strawberries cut in half. Alexa seriously doubted the crepe was going to be required. Sure enough, Dean set the plate down on the nightstand and opened up the crepe so that he could access the contents.

"These strawberries look amazing," he said. He picked half of one up and tried it. "Mmm, incredible," he informed her. "I'd give you one, but…" He gestured to her gag.

"Fmmk ymm," she moaned, scowling at him, playing along with his taunting.

"Now, there's no need for that sort of language," he scolded. "Honestly, no wonder you end up like that. He ate another strawberry half, then moved the plate over to the bed. "Maybe this will improve your mood?"

Breathing heavily, Alexa looked into his eyes, knowing what he was going to do next.

Dean scooped up roughly half of the whipped cream in his hand, along with the strawberries that were sitting in it, and set about smothering Alexa's left breast in it. He took pleasure in her gasp at the cold when it touched her skin, hoping that it would soon have her nipples erect for him. A couple of the strawberry halves fell off her body onto the bed, so he quickly ate them when he was done. Then he repeated the process with the rest of the cream and her other breast. By the time he was finished, she was almost panting into her gag in anticipation of him licking at all off for her.

For that reason, he made her wait, choosing to eat a few more strawberry pieces first, as if he had all the time in the world.

"Mmmmpppph!" she objected, glaring at him again.

"Oh, alright," he conceded playfully. Leaning over her, he slowly, tenderly, worked on her breast with his tongue. As he licked, he savoured every moment and every taste, particularly liking the way he got a taste of cream and of her with each stroke of his tongue. Her low moans of pleasure only added to the intimate feel of the moment. Once he had cleared the first breast of cream, he gave the hard nipple a little bite, producing a loud squeal from her.

Before starting on her other breast, Dean wiped his mouth and helped himself to another couple of strawberry pieces. Looking at Alexa, he could see saliva running down her chin and sweat on her brow. The amount of writhing she had been doing against her bonds had made sure he knew how turned on she was. By the time all the cream was gone, she would be ready and waiting for him to fuck her, that was for certain. He was rock hard already himself.

He slipped a hand into her underwear, finding her as wet as he had expected. "Not long now, baby," he said gruffly as she groaned. It sounded very much like she was pleading with him to untie her legs and get down to business right then and there. Whether that was the case or not, she was going to have to wait. Leaning back over her again, he put his tongue to work on her other breast.

By now, Alexa's wrists and shoulders hurt from being restrained and the corners of her mouth felt very sore from the gag cutting into them. Pain and discomfort notwithstanding, this was a unique sexual experience for her; one that she was enjoying a lot, and one that she would definitely like to repeat in the future. She knew she wouldn't need to ask Dean if he felt the same way.

"All done, darlin'," Dean said, wiping his lips of the last of the whipped cream. "And very nice it was, too."

"Fmmk mm," she begged him, lifting her head.

"Sorry?" Dean exclaimed, having understood her upfront demand.

"Fmmk mm!" she growled into the silk, wriggling her legs as best she could.

"Okay," Dean said simply, with a theatrical shrug. He moved down to the bottom of the bed, untied the knot in the bathrobe cord, unwound it and threw it aside. Wasting no time now, he quickly unbuttoned his jeans and pulled his boxers down.

Alexa closed her eyes, grunting as he entered her. He was a big guy, and filled her very nicely indeed. He began slowly, but was soon pounding her hard. Ordinarily, she liked to grab onto something while she was being fucked; either Dean himself, or a fistful of the bed covers. This time, with her wrists bound, that was not possible. She found herself straining hard against the tie and whimpering into the gag, wishing for the first time that it wasn't there. Breathing was seriously difficult now.

"Fuck, darlin', you're so hot," Dean gasped out, looking down at her as he continued his powerful thrusts. "Come for me. The sooner you come, the sooner I can take that out of your mouth."

It still took her another minute to reach her climax. When he felt her peak, seeing her eyes roll back in her head for a moment, Dean said, "That's it, darlin'. That's it." Only when her orgasm was over did he allow himself his own release, unloading into her with a couple of deep grunts of his own.

It was over. Dean pulled out of her, breathing heavily and sweating, as she was. "That was incredible,"

"Mmmmm," Alexa groaned, gesturing with her eyes towards the gag. Now that the sex was over, she wanted it taken out and her wrists to be released.

"Sit up," Dean told her. She obeyed, and he reached behind her head to undo the knot in the silky bra. It came free, and he pulled it out of her mouth, soaked through with saliva.

"Thank you," she sighed gratefully, working her jaw to relieve some of the pain.

"I hope you were okay like that?" he asked as he worked on freeing her wrists. He figured she had to have been, since she hadn't chosen to safe word, but it was still polite to ask.

"I loved the feeling of being tied and gagged; how helpless it make me. But it did hurt the corners of my mouth. They feel sore now."

"Oh, okay," Dean said. He removed the tie from her wrists and watched as she gratefully rubbed them. "I could maybe use tape to gag you, if you think that would feel more comfortable. I'm not sure if it works well, though. Plus, I have to say I love the way that bra looks between your lips, with that pink lip gloss and all. It's very striking."

Alexa wanted to make her man happy, but at the same time, she didn't necessarily want the discomfort of the bra in her mouth again if she could help it. Twice was probably enough. Tape sounded like a better solution, if it was effective, but then he wouldn't be able to see her lips, something he obviously wanted. Unless… "Maybe there's some kind of strong, transparent tape out there?"

Transparent tape was a good idea, Dean had to admit. "I'll look into it," he decided. Noticing a spare strawberry piece that had fallen onto the bed, he picked it up and offered to feed it to her. "I saved one for you."

Sweaty, hair a mess, Alexa still looked the most beautiful woman imaginable to Dean when she gave him one of her sweetest smiles. "Thank you, baby." She allowed him to put the strawberry into her mouth.

Dean leaned forward and gave her a gentle kiss on the end of her nose. "You're welcome, darlin'."


	27. Chapter 27

"Can I join you?"

Lucy looked up from her phone to greet Alexa. "Hey, sure you can."

They were on a plane, somewhere over the Atlantic. WWE's two week overseas post-Wrestlemania tour was soon to commence. The first week would be in the UK, followed by the second week hopping between countries in the rest of Europe. A travel schedule like that promised to be gruelling, but Alexa knew Lucy didn't care; a week wrestling in her own country was something she had been looking forward to for a long time.

"I gave up on sleeping," Alexa said as she sat down in what had been Seth's seat. He was up at the front of the cabin, talking to Roman and Dean, which explained her inability to rest.

"Those three could talk a glass eye to sleep," Lucy said dryly, setting Alexa off giggling.

"They talk too loudly to get anything to sleep," she countered.

"Good point," Lucy admitted, putting her phone back in her pocket so as to better focus on the conversation. "We'll be landing in a couple of hours," she said next, having noted the time on the screen before she put it away.

"Good. I'm hyped for this tour, especially the UK part. They're billing us as one of the main attractions, for obvious reasons." She pictured one of the promotional images she had seen for the Raw side of the tour online. Several superstars had been featured on it, shown in line, their images diminishing slightly in size along with their perceived importance. Primacy had been given to the WWE Universal Champion Bray Wyatt, but Twisted Thorne had been given the spot next to him. They were booked to defend their Women's Tag Team Championships at all of the Raw house shows. Twisted Thorne were the most over babyface team in the division at the moment, even without the fact that the British fans always went wild for Lucy.

"It should be a lot of fun," the English woman agreed. "You and I are arguably the biggest draws for this tour. It's crazy when you think about it, how fast we got over."

"I think some of it is because of the little and large thing, and how we've played that. It's entertaining for people."

Lucy looked at Alexa with a raised eyebrow. "I'd rather you said short and tall, not little and large. You make me sound fat." The truth was that both women were in great shape, albeit Lucy more muscular than her partner. It was the eight inch height difference that made their team dynamic unique, and also gave them the option of working some comedy into their stuff from time to time.

"Short and tall, then," Alexa said quickly. "You know what I meant. As if I'd call you fat. I'm not blind."

"You say the nicest things," Lucy replied with a chuckle.

Two air hostesses reached their row with a drinks cart. Alexa politely declined the offer of a drink, while Lucy asked for a cup of tea. "It's weak as fuck, but it'll have to do," she griped after the hostesses moved on, looking at the pale brown liquid with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

"I randomly found myself thinking earlier about a new move we could do," Alexa said, following her own train of thought without really noticing Lucy's complaint about the tea.

Sipping the drink suspiciously, Lucy said, "Oh?"

"I was thinking that we have a couple of double team moves that I do. There's the Twisted Thorne of course, and the one where you Gorilla press me over the top rope onto an opponent. But what we don't have is a double move that you do."

"High flying isn't really my thing," Lucy pointed out.

"I know. It doesn't have to be a high flying move, though. The one I pictured, we could definitely do."

"Alright, sell it to me."

"Okay," Alexa said, turning in her seat so as to face Lucy even more as she warmed to her task of describing the move. "Picture an opponent down on the mat, lying on their back. I stand fairly close to them, but with my back to them. You run and hit the ropes I'm facing, then when you come towards me, I back body drop you, and you land back first on the opponent. I think it would be impressive if we got some decent height on it."

Running through the move in her head, Lucy nodded her approval. Power moves and punches were her regular form of offense, but there was no difficulty in being dropped onto an opponent. Also, it was a good idea for them to have a double team move for when she was the legal person in a match. "I like it," she announced. "Nice job, Lexi."

"You're the only one who calls me Lexi," she said with a shy grin.

"Don't you like it? Honestly, I hadn't even thought about it. I guess I just started saying it."

"It's fine. I like it," Alexa said, now with one of the smiles that Dean adored so much. "I was just commenting on the fact that no one else uses it."

"I'll carry on using it, then. When I was at school, my group of friends used to call me LT. No one does that now, either."

"Then I will," Alexa decided. "You call me Lexi, I call you LT."

"Alright, deal." Lucy sat and sipped her drink for a moment, wishing that she had ordered something else. To take her mind off the failure of airlines to serve decent tea, she asked, "You're settling into the house now, then?"

"Yeah," Alexa said with another smile. "All of Renee's stuff is gone, and my stuff is in. Just getting that done makes what Dean and I have feel so much more like a serious relationship. It's a really nice house, too. I never imagined I would live somewhere like that when I was a kid."

Lucy realised she didn't know much at all about her friend's childhood. It had never come up in conversation, and neither had Lucy's. By the sound of it, they had differing stories to tell. "Your family didn't have much money?" she asked, making sure it didn't sound like she was judging in any way.

"No, we really didn't. We had a small house that was kind of run down. My dad was often out of work, so we never had money. But you know what? We were always happy. Even when times were tough, there was always food on the table for me. I learned later that my dad sometimes went hungry so that I could eat, and that was because he was putting money aside to take me to the wrestling whenever WWE came to town."

"Bless him, that's so sweet," Lucy said. The story had hit her right in the feels, particularly because she would soon be a parent herself. She could understand why Alexa's dad had made that kind of sacrifice to see his daughter happy. In the same circumstances, she would do it for Clementine.

"I know. I love my dad so much, and I'm not afraid to say that."

"Nor should you be. I love both of my parents, and my sister."

"They're all doctors, right?" Alexa said, narrowing her eyes a little as she recalled a memory from somewhere. She couldn't remember how she knew.

"Yeah, they are. That's why I'm lucky enough to have never needed to struggle for money. Their approval, on the other hand, has sometimes been hard to come by."

"They didn't like the idea of you becoming a wrestler?"

"Nope. Or a boxer, before that. Mom and dad wanted their daughters to be doctors, and that was that. Lisa never had a problem living up to that expectation, and now she loves her job. My problem was I just never gave a shit about medicine. I certainly wasn't going to train for a job I wasn't interested in doing, so I refused to go to University."

"Man, I can just imagine the arguments," Alexa said, puffing out her cheeks.

"Trust me, you can't," Lucy assured her. "My temper runs in the family, let's just say that. It's not a period of my life I'd like to go back to. As I said before, I love my parents, and I meant it, but that doesn't mean I don't aspire to do better than them. I never thought I'd have a kid, but now that I'm going to adopt I realise why people do. It's an amazing thing to have a child to love and care for. I'm really struggling for words to describe it."

"You don't need to describe it, I can see it whenever you're with Clem, with both you and Seth. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: you're going to make amazing parents. Clem will be lucky to have you, and you'll make her very happy. I don't doubt that for a minute."

"Thanks, Lexi," Lucy said, suddenly taking a great deal of interest in the clouds outside the window. It was better than letting her friend see her eyes tearing up. After a minute, she managed to compose herself. "You and Dean are still going to come out to our place once Clem is properly moved in, aren't you?"

"Of course," Alexa said definitively. "It's a shame we live so far away, otherwise we'd love to have you come to our place, Clem included. I know it would be hard to make that work, though, with her schooling and our crazy schedule."

"Schools do have the summer break," Lucy said thoughtfully. "We could maybe have a little family trip to Vegas for a few days if the opportunity presented itself."

"We'd love to have you, if we could make that happen. We've got room for you to stay in our house, so you wouldn't need to worry about a hotel. We could have a barbeque; a pool party; loads of fun stuff."

It did sound like fun to Lucy, and she knew Seth and Clementine would have a great time. "We've got to make that happen," she decided. "I'll mention it to Seth later, but I know he'll want to do it."

"I'm looking forward to it already," Alexa said happily.

"Me too." Lucy finished off her tea and put the cup down on her tray with a grimace. "That was shite. I don't know why I asked for it."

Once more, Alexa ignored the tea-related complaint. "You know what else I'm looking forward to?"

"What?" Lucy asked, turning to look at her.

"Our meet and greet session tomorrow. I always enjoy them, and it should be something else with the English fans coming out to see you." They were booked for a two hour session at a toy store in Nottingham; not for from Leicester, where Lucy had been born and raised.

"Us, Lexi, not me."

"Of course, but you know what I mean. There's going to be so much hype around it. I've already seen some of it on Twitter. They gave the wristbands out early a couple of days ago, and even then they went really quickly, apparently."

Lucy nodded. "I saw that, too. People were tweeting me to say that they had their wristband and couldn't wait to see us. I retweeted a few of them. Actually, I meant to speak to you about that. What do you think of the idea of going in our ring gear?"

"We don't have to do that," Alexa pointed out.

"I know we don't have to, but it makes it better for the fans. It gives them better pictures with us, you know?"

Alexa nodded, deciding not to comment on the fact that while Lucy had improved her fan interaction over the past year, it was common knowledge in the locker room that she still rarely went the extra mile for people. Undoubtedly, she was willing to do so on this occasion because the event was in England, and these would be 'her' people. "Ring attire it is," she said, keeping her answer simple.

"Nice one," Lucy said, satisfied that her idea had been accepted.

They moved on to chatting about other things. Before they knew it, Seth was standing next to Alexa. "We'll be landing soon, guys," he said, wanting his seat back.

"Bloody hell, where did that time go?" Lucy asked.

"It goes by quickly when you're gossiping," Seth quipped.

Alexa feigning a withering look at him as she got up. "You would know, Seth. Why do you think I moved back here to start with?" With that, she made her way forward, back to her own seat.

With a chuckle, Seth sat down and started recapping the conversation he had been having with Roman and Dean. Before long, the plane was on the ground in London. Along with almost everyone else on the flight, the first thing Seth and Lucy did was check their phones for messages. While Lucy started typing out a reply to a text message, Seth began to check his social media. The headline on a wrestling news article quickly caught his eye. "Oh shit," he said, turning the screen so that his fiancée could see it.

"Oh shit," Lucy echoed with a heavy sigh.

The headline read: _Renee Young: Dean Ambrose cheated on me with Alexa Bliss._


	28. Chapter 28

"I can't go in there," Alexa said, anxiety as obvious in her voice as it was on her face.

Lucy looked at her with genuine sympathy. They were at the arena for the first night of the UK tour. That wasn't the issue, of course. Alexa was worked up because of the fact that she was the current hot topic among wrestling fans online, along with Dean and Renee. Alexa's fear was that the whole thing was going to be raked up in the locker room again, just when she had felt it was in the past. For that reason, the two friends were lingering in the parking garage. The men had gone on ahead, correctly figuring out that the best option was to leave Lucy to try and calm Alexa down.

"Lexi, no one is going to start on you again. They had their say on this a while back, and we worked it out. The only one who looks bad in this situation is Renee." Lucy shook her head, thinking about what Dean's ex had done.

"Why would she mention it on her God damn podcast?" Alexa demanded, as if Lucy might have an answer.

Mention had been made by a guest on the podcast Renee hosted of someone being cheated on, and Renee had replied by saying, 'I know how that feels, thanks to Dean and Alexa Bliss.'

It was possible that she had said it without really thinking it through. But then it was equally possible that it had been said maliciously, with the intent to drag Dean and Alexa's names through the mud. Alexa was concerned by that, and the impact it might have on Twisted Thorne, when the team was just getting over with the fans.

"Come here," Lucy said sympathetically, offering a hug to her friend and tag team partner. Alexa accepted the gesture with a deep sigh as Lucy said, "It's going to be okay. I promise, alright?"

"Thanks, LT," Alexa said quietly. Oddly, she found herself believing it. If anyone had the ability to get the rest of the locker room in line in was Lucy, with her forceful personality. She wasn't an easy person to become friends with, but once you did, she was a good friend to have.

"We really should go inside," Lucy said after a moment.

"Okay," Alexa agreed reluctantly.

Pulling their cases along, they made their way into the arena, heading for the women's locker room. Happily for Alexa, the first familiar face she saw along the way was a friendly one. Nia Jax was standing in the hallway, on her phone with someone. Seeing them approaching, she asked the person on the line to wait a second.

"Hi, guys," she said pleasantly. "Hunter is here. He wants to see you both ASAP."

"Oh God," Alexa groaned. Hunter was supposed to be with the Smackdown half of the tour. Now he had shown up at the Raw show, presumably as a direct result of the podcast drama. "I'm fucked," she said despairingly, looking at Lucy in some vague hope of a contrary opinion.

A contrary opinion did arrive, but it was Nia who spoke. "I don't think you are. I heard it's Renee he's pissed off at, for taking personal stuff public and bringing unnecessary drama to the company and to the locker room. I heard he already lost his cool with her on the phone earlier, then he had her go to his office when he arrived. You'd better get moving, too."

"She's right. Come on, let's go," Lucy said, leading the way.

The Women's Tag Team Champions walked in silence for a minute until Alexa said, "Do you think he's going to have us drop the belts?"

Never the most patient of people, Lucy had a slight edge to her voice as she answered. "Look, you've done nothing wrong. You've been with Dean for months now. You live with the guy for fuck's sake. Renee is the one who brought up the past and caused drama. And don't forget I put Steph in the picture about the shit Finn started at the Wrestlemania party, too. I'd say those two are pushing their luck about as far as it's going to go."

Alexa had to admit there was logic to those points. Yes, she and Dean had started sleeping together behind Renee's back, but neither of them had been the cause of anything unprofessional at work. Renee and Finn, on the other hand, had crossed that line more than once, even before this latest incident. She told herself to try and go into the imminent meeting with that attitude, while Lucy asked a crew member where they could find Hunter.

Shortly, they were walking into an office. The furniture was quite basic, probably because Hunter hadn't originally been scheduled to be there. In any case, none of it was being used. Hunter was standing in front of the desk, looking some way from the happiest Alexa had ever seen him. Renee was standing in front of him, her demeanour very sheepish and her cheeks slightly red. She avoided looking at the new arrivals, obviously not wanting to make eye contact. The distinct impression Alexa had was that she had just been on the receiving end of her second roasting of the day.

"Ah, good," Hunter said as the two women entered. "Close the door. We're going to have a little chat." His tone conveyed the fact that a little chat was putting it very mildly.

"Hunter, can I just say…" Alexa began as she and Lucy stood in front of him, keeping their distance from Renee.

"No, you can't. I don't want to hear anything from any of you until I've finished what I have to say. Renee has already heard some of it, but she's going to have to hear it again." He looked from Renee to Alexa and Lucy and back again as he went on. "Recently, there have been several instances of unprofessional behaviour, both at work and at the Wrestlemania after party. Every time, it's been the same names coming back to me when I find out what's been going on: Renee Young, Finn Balor, Alexa Bliss, Dean Ambrose. I know it's all about personal stuff that has nothing to do with work. Renee, you're accusing Dean and Alexa of getting together behind your back, and Dean has accused Renee and Finn of getting together behind his back. Frankly, I don't care if any or both of those accusations have any truth behind them."

Lucy was unable to hold her tongue. "Alexa's not the one who…"

"Shut up," Hunter told her firmly. "I said I don't want to hear anything from you until I'm done."

Chastised, Lucy resolved herself to keep quiet. She wasn't used to being spoken to like that, which told her how serious he was about this whole thing. It was hardly surprising, she had to admit.

"As I was saying," Hunter went on, "I don't give a damn if any of this cheating nonsense is true. That's your personal business, and it should not be brought into the workplace. You're all here to do a job. That's why I came here tonight, to tell everyone involved to draw a line under this thing, right now. I'll be talking to Dean and Finn separately after we're done here, and they'll be given the same warning, which is that if this carries on, someone's going to lose their job over it. Renee, what you did by saying what you said on your podcast not only attracted negativity and drama to WWE, it also threatens to have an impact on Twisted Thorne's popularity, just when they're getting over. We've got a lot riding on them being the babyfaces of the tag team division, and you jeopardised that. That's directly interfering in business and potentially costing us a lot of money. It also affects people who are not even involved in your issues, like Paige and Becky for example."

Hunter stopped for a breath, using the pause to calm himself a little. "So it stops. It stops right now, and it stops for good. Renee, Alexa, I'm not going to stand here and make you shake hands, but what you are going to do is assure me this kind of thing isn't going to happen again." He gestured that they were now free to speak.

Renee went first. To her credit, she looked Alexa in the eye. "I didn't plan to say what I said on the podcast. It just came out when the subject came up. Honestly, even so, I don't see why I should apologise to you. I've already apologised to Hunter for the effect it might have on business. So, all I have to say is it won't happen again."

"Fine," Alexa said, trying her best to remove hostility from her tone. She could have gone into the fact that it had been Renee and Finn starting things every time, but she figured Hunter wouldn't be best pleased to hear that kind of thing. Instead, she added, "Stay away from me, and stop talking about me behind my back, then we won't have a problem."

"Fine," Renee echoed, turning back to look at Hunter.

Lucy kept her mouth shut, realising that the best thing she could bring to the conversation at the moment was silence.

"Good," Hunter said, now sounding more like his usual self. "Now, let's talk about damage control. Needless to say, there's going to be a lot of crap flying around on the internet over the next few days about this. Most of it's going to come your way Alexa, rather than Dean's. It's not right, but that's just how things like this go down; the woman always seems to get blamed more than the man."

None of that was news to Alexa; she had already resolved herself to it. At this point, she was just glad to have gotten off lighter than expected with Hunter, and that he had hopefully brought an end to the crap she had been getting from Renee. "What's the plan?" she asked him.

"The way I see it, there are two ways we could play this. Option one: we ignore it, wait for the shit to stop flying around and hope it all gets forgotten about quickly. I don't particularly like that option because it leaves everything out of our control, with Twisted Thorne's popularity possibly in jeopardy."

"So what's option two?" Lucy asked.

"Option two is that we play it off as an angle. Renee, you've mentioned before that you'd love to have a match one day. Well, this would be your chance."

To say the least, Alexa was surprised by that idea. "You're talking about me and her wrestling each other?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"Actually, I'm talking about Twisted Thorne wrestling Renee and a partner. A singles rivalry would make no creative sense at this point, and putting someone with Renee is a good idea because of her lack of experience."

You mean because she's going to fucking suck in the ring, Lucy thought, her face impassive. She could see where he was coming from creatively, and could even make a case for this storyline increasing Twisted Thorne's popularity, but there was little doubt that the payoff match would be terrible. Still, it was probably the best of a bad job at this point.

"Okay, I'm up for it," Renee said, surprising Alexa a little. "Who would you put with me?"

"I was thinking of Emma."

"Not a bad idea," Alexa admitted. The Australian was one of the top heels among the women, and had recently dropped the Women's Championship to Bayley. Renee and Emma against Twisted Thorne could work, if it was written well.

"What about Paige and Becky?" Lucy asked. "We're supposed to be working with them for a while."

Hunter nodded. "Right. You still will be working with them. What I'm thinking at this early stage is that this Monday we'll have you in a tag title rematch. The surprise will be Renee coming out and interfering, almost costing you the match in a false finish. That would be our starting point, from which we can build this thing into both Renee and Emma, and Becky and Paige coming after Twisted Thorne for the titles. If we play it right, I think this has some legs to it."

"I think so, too," Renee said, now with a smile on her face.

Hunter spent a couple of minutes talking to Renee about arrangements for her to have some in-ring training down at WWE's Performance Center. When that had been covered, he had one more thing to say to them all. "Now, if we're going to make an on-screen rivalry out of this, I require you to work with each other in an appropriate manner. If that's going to be a problem for anyone, say so now, because I'm not going to stand for problems after we get started with the storyline."

Although she had no desire to work with Renee, Alexa really did want to put an end to the drama and bullshit of the past few months. Working a program with Renee seemed like an acceptable price to pay for that. "It won't be a problem as far as I'm concerned," she said solemnly.

"Or me," Lucy added.

"Not a problem," Renee confirmed.

Hunter nodded his satisfaction. "Okay then. Just remember, I'll be holding you to those promises. Renee, you can go. Tell Finn I want to see him in half an hour."

"Sure. Thank you, Hunter," Renee said politely, before heading for the door.

When she was gone, Hunter moved the conversation on. "A couple more things I need to mention to you, ladies, before you go. Firstly, this thing has given me a kick up the ass to organise something I've been meaning to get done for a while. I'm going to split the women's locker rooms so that there's one for the faces and one for the heels. It's always been a good way to work, and it will keep a bit of distance between you and Renee."

"I think that's a good idea," Lucy said. "Some of the rooms have been crowded since the rosters were joined. I've had people ask me a couple of times if I could get something done about it, but I never got around to speaking to you."

"That's settled, then," Hunter said. "Tell everyone the new arrangement will start Monday. I'll get a list of assignments made up to show who is going to be where, just so everyone's clear."

Lucy nodded. An assignment list was a good idea, since some of the lesser talent didn't really have much going as far as their characters were concerned. It would have been up for debate which locker room they were supposed to go to.

"Lastly," Hunter said, "I want the two of you to make sure you do your best to get on top of any negative reaction that might be coming your way. What I mean by that is, put on what you might call a charm offensive. You're babyfaces; act like it. I want you at your best at that meet and greet tomorrow. You might also consider doing some live videos for fans to interact with you; shake some hands when you get off the tour bus at arenas; you know the kind of things I mean."

"Go kiss some babies, in other words," Alexa said, using the political metaphor for buttering up public opinion. "You got it, Hunter."

"Good," the boss said with his first smile of the meeting. "Alright, off you go. Tell Dean I want him in here in half an hour. And send Emma to see me now, would you? I'd better put her in the picture."

"Sure," Lucy agreed, wasting no time in leading the way to the door.

"Well, that wasn't what I expected," Alexa said once they were safely out in the hallway.

"Neither did I," Lucy agreed. "Are you really okay working with her? I know you had to say so in there, but…"

"If she sticks to her word, I'll stick to mine. After what's happened, I'm never going to be friends with her, but I'm grown up enough to work with someone I don't particularly like, especially if it stops all the crap I've been going through."

"Fair enough," Lucy said. She couldn't help wondering how big a word the if at the start of her friend's answer might prove to be.


	29. Chapter 29

Alexa and Lucy had been driven to the delivery entrance of the large toy store where their meet and greet session would shortly be taking place. The store's manager, a tall, gangly looking man with a bald head and an infectious smile was there to meet them upon their arrival. He couldn't help a brief moment of pause as he took in the ring attire they were both wearing.

"Morning. I'm Gordon," he said, offering his hand first to Alexa.

"Alexa," she replied, returning his smile in kind.

Lucy offered her hand next, doing her best to join in with the happy party. "Lucy."

"Lovely to meet you, ladies. We've already got the fans in the store, lined up and ready for you. We've got a couple of our staff members there ready to help out. If you'd like to follow me, I can show you the way?"

"That would be great, thank you," Alexa said politely. As they began their walk through the staff only areas of the store, she reminded herself of Hunter's instruction that she and Lucy were to be at their most fan-friendly for this session, and in the coming days in general, so as to minimise the effect of Renee Young's stupid or malicious comment on her podcast. For Alexa, being fan-friendly wasn't a tall order at all; she loved meeting people and was always thankful for their support. Lucy, on the other hand, could be a thornier proposition, depending on her mood at any given moment.

"What are you grinning at?" Lucy asked her quietly.

"I just had an awful pun go through my head," Alexa giggled. "Ignore me. And remember, we need to be at our best today. I don't want another lecture from Hunter."

"I've got the message. Anyway, remember whose idea it was to come dressed like this," Lucy said. Both women were dressed in their ring attire, title belts around their waists. They were both carrying fresh cups of coffee from the Starbucks they had insisted the driver stop at on the way. Lucy was also carrying the leather gloves that made up part of her outfit. Not only was she now used to wearing them to wrestle, they were also a blessing when it came to meeting fans. A lot of people felt nervous as they got near to the front of the line, which often made their hands sweaty – not pleasant when most of them insisted on shaking hands when they approached the table.

"Alright, alright, you had a good idea once," Alexa conceded in good humour. She was getting used to her tag team partner's frequent use of sarcasm and was beginning to get the confidence to give her some in return when the chance presented itself.

"Careful," Lucy said, wagging a finger. "You won't look very good in people's pictures with a broken nose."

"Try me, Thorne," Alexa said, feigning defiance.

As Gordon led them out into the customer's area of the store, both women were laughing. "We've got you set up just over here," he said, making his way along an aisle filled with boxes of Lego.

"I never had any Legos," Alexa said, looking at the incredible range of products as they walked by.

Lucy said, "I did, but all I can really remember is treading on the bastard things with no shoes on."

Gordon heard that comment and joined in with Alexa's laughter.

"It's not funny! I was screaming and hobbling around the place. There's no worse pain in the world than stepping on a piece of Lego."

"Tell me about it, I've got three kids," Gordon said, grinning. They reached the end of the aisle and the store opened up in front of them. There was large area where temporary barriers had been set up to make an area for fans to form a line. In front of that, there was a wooden table with two simple plastic chairs behind it. On the table were a large number of sharpie pens in various colours and a stack of cheap Twisted Thorne promo pictures which could be signed for fans who didn't bring anything of their own.

As soon as the fans saw Alexa and Lucy, a loud cheer erupted. It was a real hero's welcome; louder than was commonplace at meet and greet sessions. A 'Twisted Thorne' chant was already underway by the time they reached the table.

"Anything else I can do for you?" Gordon asked, having to speak louder than before to make himself heard over the fans.

"No, thank you," Alexa said with a smile. "It was good to meet you. Hey, are your kids wrestling fans?"

"Embarrassingly, no," he had to admit.

"That's killed that one, then," Lucy chuckled as she pulled one of the chairs out from under the table. As she had freedom of choice, she had decided to go for the one furthest from the line of people so that they went to Alexa first. Setting her gloves and cup of coffee down on the table, she set about taking her title belt off. Both belts would be arranged in front of them on the table so they featured in the fan's pictures.

Thanking Gordon once more, Alexa walked over to the table, her own belt already removed from around her waist. While she set about getting her side of the table ready, Lucy unlocked her phone and called out to the fans, "Let's record a video and show them what they're missing!"

A loud cheer was the response.

"Okay everyone, go crazy!" Lucy shouted, then started the video. As they all cheered, shouted and screamed, she made sure to sweep her camera around to cover the whole line.

"Lucy Thorne, I never thought I'd see you do something like that," Alexa said with a mischievous grin after Lucy had ended the recording.

"I'm full of surprises," Lucy replied deadpan. With that, she put her gloves on and sat down, ready to begin.

"Damn. I forgot to pick my gloves up," Alexa realised. "I got them out as well. Must have left them on the bed."

"Sweaty hand for you, girl. Good luck," Lucy said without much sympathy. At least there was a bottle of hand sanitiser on the table if things got too bad.

Alexa signalled to the staff member who was in charge at the end of the line of fans that they were ready to begin. A guy who looked to be in his early twenties was first to come forward. His Twisted Thorne shirt had creases in it, and his hair looked like it could have benefitted from a comb, but he had an excited smile on his face.

"Hey, how are you?" Alexa asked as he approached. Sure enough, he wanted to shake hands.

"Hi, Alexa," he replied with some nervousness.

Then it was Lucy's turn. "Morning. Good to see you," she said as they exchanged a brief handshake.

"I slept outside last night to make sure I got to meet you guys," the fan revealed.

Lucy raised her eyebrows. "You slept on the pavement? That's some commitment right there."

Alexa had taken the Twisted Thorne promotional image he had brought with him for them to sign. Unlike the free ones that were there to be given out, the one the fan had brought was one of her favourites that had been produced since she had been teaming with Lucy. "Do you want anything personal writing on it?" she asked. "We're not supposed to, but since you've been here since yesterday I figure it's the least we can do."

"Uh, thanks. Put whatever you want," the guy said, clearly taken by surprise by the question.

"What's your name?" Alexa asked.

"Dale."

Alexa wrote: _For Dale. Twisted Thorne's number one fan._ Then she signed underneath the writing. Sliding the promo across the desk for Lucy to sign, she said, "How's that?"

"Awesome. Thank you so much."

Lucy scrawled her signature next to Alexa's, then said, "Shall we get a picture?"

"Please," Dale said. He had already passed his phone to one of the staff members when he had been at the front of the line. He leaned on the table next to Lucy and all three of them posed for the photo.

"Thanks, guys. It was great to meet you," he said after his phone had been handed back.

"Thanks for coming out," Lucy said. With that, he walked away. Meeting number one of three hundred was done.

About ten minutes later, a couple of girls in their late teens stepped forward. They were dressed as Becky Lynch and Paige, even including having their hair coloured appropriately. The costumes were among the best Alexa had ever seen, and she was a big fan of cosplay. "Look at you guys!" she exclaimed. "You look amazing!"

"What do you mean they look amazing?" Lucy objected. "After everything Becky and Paige have done to us!"

The two fans started laughing, but Lucy wasn't done. She stood up, pointed at the Becky and Paige impersonators and shouted to the people in line, "Look who's here!"

Resounding boos came from the crowd, along with some laughter. No Twisted Thorne fan could possibly cheer for the two most hated heels on the women's roster.

"We're the rightful champions!" 'Paige' shouted at Lucy, loving playing along and using what had become the heel team's catchphrase.

Laughing, Lucy said, "Would you like to get a picture with the belts?"

"Can we? That would be amazing!" 'Becky' exclaimed.

"Let's do it," Alexa said. Picking up both belts, she walked around the table and handed one to each fan.

"Hold them up, like you've just won them," Lucy suggested.

The fans did as she said, while Lucy posed with a miserable expression on her face and her thumb pointing down. Trying not to laugh, Alexa did the same. The toy store staff member took the picture, then handed the phone back to 'Paige'.

"Oh my God, that's such an awesome picture," she said, giggling like an idiot. Her friend leaned in to see it and started laughing as well.

"Let me see," Lucy said, holding her hand out for the phone. 'Paige' passed it to her. When she saw the picture, even Lucy had to chuckle. It really was a good one. She showed it to Alexa.

"That's awesome," she said, smiling broadly.

As she returned the phone to its owner, Lucy said, "Tweet me that picture. I want to put it on my Instagram."

"Will do," 'Paige' promised. "Thanks for being so cool, guys. You're the best."

"Yeah? Well come dressed as us next time, then," Lucy quipped as she went back around the table.

Laughing, the fans walked away.

Alexa was used to having a good time with fans at sessions like these, but this one was proving to be even more enjoyable with Lucy getting into the spirit of it as well. Whether she was just putting in extra effort, or whether it was because Clementine had had such a positive effect on her outlook as a whole, there were certainly changes for the better coming out in her personality. It bode well for the success of Twisted Thorne. Alexa could already imagine the positive messages that would be posted to social media about this event. Hopefully it would offset some of the inevitable negativity caused by that idiot Renee.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Twisted Thorne were back in the car, being driven back to their hotel.

"I really enjoyed that," Alexa said, smiling at Lucy. "People really love us as a team. I know it was our meet and greet, but there was so much Twisted Thorne merch there. Considering how new we are, I found it quite striking."

"Me too," Lucy nodded. She sounded like she was in a strangely reflective mood, and that was soon confirmed by the next thing she had to say. "You know, a year or so back, before I joined The Shield, I used to just look at this as a well-paying job with a shit travel schedule. I never used to even try and have much fun with it. Since I've been with Seth, and now on a team with you, I can see why people dedicate their lives to this business. I'm having the time of my life. I just want to say thanks for being such a great partner."

"Aww," Alexa said, feeling very touched. Coming from someone like Lucy, those words carried extra weight. "You're welcome, LT. And thank you, too. I wasn't sure about being paired with you, I have to admit, but I'm really enjoying it. We make a good team on-screen and off."

Lucy acknowledged the kind words with a nod, but seemed to feel awkward about continuing with the topic. Instead, she said, "I never thought I'd be looking forward to leaving England, but I can't wait to get back home. I miss Clem."

"I'm sure she misses you, too," Alexa said sympathetically. "Personally, I'm waiting for the tour to end so that I have a couple of days off to spend with Dean. Last time, we were so busy getting my stuff from my place to his that we hardly had a minute to relax with each other. I just want to be able to go home and spend some quality time with him for a while, you know?"

Little did she know, Dean had other plans.


	30. Chapter 30

Twice a year, WWE broadcast a Raw episode from England. This time, it was the turn of the O2 arena in London to host the event. Backstage, Dean was sitting at a table in the catering area with Seth. The two men had just polished off an acceptable but not outstanding meal, and were washing it down with a second cup of coffee.

"It almost looks cosy over there," Seth said, glancing across the room to another table near the entrance.

"Almost." Dean looked over himself. Alexa and Lucy were sitting on one side of the table for four. Opposite them were Tyson Kidd and Renee Young. Since TJ had been assigned as the agent for Twisted Thorne's matches, it was fairly obvious that they were working out the details for Renee's interference in their match later in the night, and perhaps plans for the coming weeks as well, depending on how far creative had gotten with writing it up.

"There's no blood being lost as far as I can tell," Seth said. "Quite surprising really, after what Renee did. Such a shitty thing to do. I thought she was better than that."

"Me too," Dean had to admit. "I don't think being with that prick Balor is doing her any favours. I think she would have pulled up her big girl panties and moved on by now if it wasn't for him."

Seth chuckled at his friend's choice of words. "Well, I say good for Alexa for being mature and composed enough to work with her. It must have been tempting to give her a slap, or more."

"Nah, not Alexa," Dean said, shaking his head. "She's too placid for that kind of thing. If anyone was likely to start throwing fists it would have been your girl, not mine."

"Good point," Seth conceded. "Anyway, I'm glad it doesn't look there's going to be anyone hitting anyone. We've had enough drama lately with poor Clementine and her parents. Such an awful situation, dude. I can't even begin to tell you."

Dean tactfully chose not to point out that Seth had actually told him all about it more than once already. It was understandable that he felt like he had to talk about it often, considering how difficult the whole thing had to be for everyone involved. "How's Clem handling it?" he asked.

"About as well as you could hope for, considering she's a ten year old girl who's dad recently died, who's now watching her mom slowly die. The poor thing is so brave, but sometimes it gets too much for her. Lucy and I Skype her every day when we can. A couple of days back she was crying, saying her mom was having a particularly bad day and she thought she was going to die. It was awful, man. I dread what it's going to be like when she actually does die."

Shaking his head sympathetically, Dean said, "I can't imagine how hard it is for you all. How long do you think her mom has left?"

"Probably not very long, to be honest. I wouldn't be very shocked if she had to be admitted to hospital soon. She seems to have faded fast since Ed was killed in that car wreck. I guess that's not really surprising; suffering something as heart-breaking as that when you already have a terminal illness. I'm sure it would finish most people off."

"Yeah," Dean said softly. Looking across the room at Alexa, he found himself wondering what it would be like if he lost her so suddenly in an accident. It was too horrible to think about for more than a few moments.

When Seth spoke next, he tried to lift the mood a little. "So, we'll be going home to take care of Clem when we get the week off after this tour. How about you? What are you and Alexa planning?"

"Actually, I'm planning something she doesn't know about. She probably thinks we'll be going back home, since she's only just moved in. But I've got a better idea."

"Which is?" Seth prompted, gesturing for him to keep talking.

"Okay, I'll lay it out for you. As you know, we fly back to America on the Sunday, straight to Raw on Monday. After that, we've got a week off. So, we'll head to the airport and Alexa will naturally assume we're getting a flight to Vegas, like I said. That's where she's going to get a surprise, because we're actually going to the Bahamas. Nassau, to be specific."

"Very nice," Seth said, nodding his head appreciatively. "Alexa will love that, I'm sure."

"I hope so. I figure she deserves to be treated to a few days of rest and relaxation in the sun after all of the shit she's gone through since we've been together. I know I didn't exactly play the whole thing very well; sleeping with her before I broke it off with Renee, but I certainly didn't want her to end up with everyone in the locker room talking about her behind her back and everyone on the internet talking about what kind of slut she is. I feel really bad about it, so I want to do this to make it up to her."

Nodding again, Seth said, "That's a very good idea, and a nice thing to do. You know what else you should do?"

"What?"

"What you just said to me a moment ago? Find the right time while you're on that vacation to say it all to her. It would really mean a lot to her to hear that from you."

Dean considered that for a moment. "Yeah, that's not a bad idea."

"Do you love her?" Seth asked next, taking his friend by surprise.

The second surprise was that, now that he was faced with the question, the answer came straight to Dean's mind. He wasn't even embarrassed to say it, which said a lot in itself. "Yeah, I think I do."

"Then tell her that as well."

Over on the other side of the room, the improvised production meeting was coming to an end.

"So, everyone's clear on what's going to happen?" TJ asked, just to make doubly sure. He received nods of confirmation from all three women. "Okay, good. Renee, I'll be in Gorilla with you to tell you when to run out to the ring."

"Okay, thank you," Renee said.

Alexa could tell that the Canadian was nervous about her first piece of on-screen action outside of her role as interviewer, not that she had any sympathy. There was too much water under the bridge at this point. Professional courtesy was the absolute limit of what Renee would get from her or Lucy, and everyone seemed to know it.

"Right, let's go," Lucy said, getting up from the table and walking away at quite a pace. Alexa almost had to jog to keep up. She couldn't help herself smiling. Without saying anything in the least unprofessional, Lucy had gotten the message across only too clearly to Renee that they wanted nothing to do with her.

* * *

Charly Caruso was shown on the big screen in the arena. The loud reaction came not for her, of course, but for the name on the locker room door behind her: Twisted Thorne.

"I'm outside Twisted Thorne's locker room, hoping to get an answer from them on whether they will accept the challenge issued by Paige and Becky Lynch earlier tonight for a rematch for the Women's Tag Team Championships, in a no holds barred match."

The locker room door behind Charly opened just when she was finishing her sentence. There was another loud cheer from the crowd as Alexa and Lucy both walked out into the hallway, dressed in their ring gear and carrying their title belts.

"Charly, you have a question?" Alexa asked pleasantly. Now that they were a face team, being rude to interviewers was not the order of the day.

"Yes. I was hoping to get an answer from you about the potential no holds barred match for your WWE Women's Tag Team Championships that was proposed earlier tonight by Paige and Becky Lynch. General Manager Kurt Angle decided that since that Paige and Becky wanted an added stipulation, the match would only happen if you, Twisted Thorne, agreed to it."

"That's right, Charly," Alexa replied. "As you said, this match, if it happened, would be no holds barred. That means it could get nasty; brutal, even. For that reason, Lucy and I had to talk it over, and make sure we made the right decision. We came to the conclusion that a no holds barred match for the Women's Tag Team Championships would not only be a blockbuster, it would be ground-breaking. We found ourselves thinking back to other ground-breaking matches in WWE history, and then to some of the ground-breaking women that have come before us.

"I'm talking about women like Alundra Blaze, like Trish Stratus, like Lita, and like Chyna. I'm talking about women who led the way in getting women's wrestling to where it is today. What those women taught people like Lucy and myself is that when the time comes to hang up your boots, you should be able to look back on your career and speak of pride, of honour, of valour in battle, and yes, of glory."

Lucy now stepped forward to continue the interview. By now, the audience in the arena were watching in near silence, sucked in by what they were hearing. This was no ordinary, boring interview. Alexa had spoken with real passion, and from the look on Lucy's face, she felt exactly the same way.

"I found myself thinking of some other things as well," she began. "Charly, we are in England." She carried on talking over the inevitable cheer. "We are in the country of Wellington, and Nelson, and Churchill. Those were all brave, heroic people. That is the kind of person Alexa and I aspire to be to all the young girls out there, who one day might be standing here in our places, looking back on what we achieved as a team. When people remember us, we want to be remembered as champions who were prepared to fight any fight; to face any odds; to meet any challenge."

She looked at Alexa proudly for a half-second, then looked back at the camera. The passion and pride that were welling up inside her had nothing to do with kayfabe. Her emotion showed in her delivery of the end of the promo. "The British SAS has a famous motto: Who Dares Wins. We dare! We will win!"

In the arena, there was a roar of approval; British patriotism mixed with support for their favourite women's team. It certainly wasn't often that a backstage promo got a standing ovation.

There was no way for anyone to know in that moment that those final five words would soon become a slogan that shifted Twisted Thorne merchandise at a truly remarkable rate.

"There you have it," Charly said as Twisted Thorne went back into their locker room. "The no holds barred match is on, and it will happen tonight!"

* * *

The Women's Tag Team Championship match had been booked as Raw's main event, partly to play up to the English fans, who were assumed to be even more behind Twisted Thorne than their American counterparts. Sure enough, they had been up for it throughout the contest. Several chair and kendo stick spots had added to the intensity of the occasion.

As was her style, Lucy hadn't held back when her turn came to use a kendo stick. Paige would be leaving with a back covered in red welts as a result.

When she got the call from the referee to finish, Alexa knew that her first on-screen altercation with Renee was moments away. It promised to be a big surprise for the fans to see an interviewer come out and interfere in a match.

With Paige and Lucy fighting on the back side of the ring, Alexa hit her Spike DDT finishing move on Becky and quickly made a cover. The crowd were cheering what seemed like an impending victory for their favourite team, but the cheers turned to boos and cries of shock when the referee slid backwards out of the ring after only getting as far as two with his count. Of all people, Renee Young was the one responsible for pulling him out of the ring by his ankle.

After a moment, the fan's initial shock gave way to anger, when they figured out the likely motivation behind Young screwing over Alexa Bliss. It had to relate back to the allegations that had been made about Alexa sleeping with Dean Ambrose while he had still been with Renee.

The two women were now exchanging angry words; Renee standing outside the ring, while Alexa was leaning over the ropes. Stretching up, Young was able to slap Bliss hard across the face.

At that exact moment, Becky was rushing Alexa from behind. Taking advantage of the distraction, she rolled Bliss up into a small package pinning combination. The referee slid back into the ring and made a count which most people clearly expected to result in new champions. The fans erupted when Alexa was able to get out of the pin in a very near fall.

Both Alexa and Becky popped right up again. Reacting the quicker, Alexa kicked the Irish woman in the stomach, then hit her Spike DDT for a second time. The referee was there to make the count, which the crowd all joined in with.

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

Despite Renee's interference, Twisted Thorne had retained their titles. Exhausted, Alexa lay on her back in the ring next to her defeated her opponent, barely able to celebrate.

Outside the ring, Renee was furious about the fact that her plan had failed. She was shown screaming in frustration. She began to climb up onto the ring apron, clearly thinking about getting into the ring and attacking Alexa, but she froze in her tracks.

On the opposite side of the ring, Lucy had just dispatched Paige into the steel ring steps with a thunderous crash. With that done, she was looking across the ring at Renee, her eyes wide, expression furious. The crowd cheered

when they saw it on the big screen, picturing what would happen if Lucy managed to get her hands on her. She would be made to pay for her interference, that was for damn sure.

Renee figured that out for herself. Her expression quickly changed from frustrated to fearful as she got back down off the apron. Lucy began to march around the ring, so Renee turned on her heels and ran, making her way up the entrance ramp as quickly as she could.

There was little chance of Lucy catching up, but she still ran up the ramp, disappearing through the curtain a few moments after Renee.

With that, the commentators brought the show to a close. The Twisted Thorne – Renee and Emma angle had begun.


	31. Chapter 31

After almost two full weeks in Europe, WWE's stars were back in America again for the next episode of Raw. The travel schedule for the tour had been particularly gruelling, even by the standards they were used to, which was why there was a noticeably subdued atmosphere backstage. Most people felt like they were running on empty.

The three men in The Shield's locker room were not exceptions. Usually, it was a place of antics and banter, but on this particular afternoon the three men were just sitting there idly chatting and messing around on their phones.

"I can't wait to get home tomorrow," Roman mumbled. "Maya asked me the other day if I'm really coming back. It was one of the worst feelings I've ever had."

"Man, that is rough," Seth said sympathetically, picturing his friend's young daughter. Thankfully, Clementine was older and able to understand the reason he and Lucy were away so much. Even so, he was sure she was looking forward to seeing them as much as they were to seeing her. "I can really understand how you feel now, too. Lucy and I are missing Clem so much. Skype calls don't cut it at all, do they?"

"Nope. They're better than nothing, but…" Roman's voice trailed off. There wasn't really a but that he could add to make the situation sound any better.

"I can't say I know what you guys are going through, but I'm definitely looking forward to some time off," Dean said. "This time tomorrow, we'll be off to the Bahamas."

"Oh? You didn't mention that?" Roman said, perking up a little.

"I didn't? Sorry, bro. I know I told you about it, Seth."

"Yeah. I'll let you fill him in, I need the men's room."

"Your first vacation with Alexa, then?" Roman asked once they had the room to themselves.

"Right. I figured it was the least I could do, after all of the shit she's gotten since we've been together. What happened was more my fault than hers, yet most of the grief has gone her way. It's not really surprising, but it's still not fair. I wanted to take her somewhere to unwind, and to show her that we'll have good times together, you know?"

"Absolutely," Roman said with a smile. Sometimes – not very often, but sometimes – Dean could be surprisingly thoughtful.

And so it proved on this occasion because Dean wasn't finished. "I've decided we're going to do whatever she wants to do while we're there. If she wants to chill on the beach, that's what we'll do. If she wants to order a shit load of cocktails and get wasted, we'll do that. Or if it's a spa and massage day she's after…"

"I would pay good money to see you go to a spa day," Roman cut in, chuckling heartily.

Grinning, Dean said, "Well, I think the massages would be more my kind of thing, as long as it was a hot chick doing it. But like I said, this about treating Alexa and making her feel special."

"It's a really nice thing to do," Roman said more seriously. "It's a man's job to make his girl feel that way from time to time."

"That's pretty much what I was thinking. When I told Seth about this, he came out and asked me if I love her." It was Dean's way of getting around to telling Roman the same thing, without having to be upfront about it.

"And do you?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "Yeah, I think I do."

Roman raised his eyebrows slightly. "You _think_ you do?"

"I do," Dean said more assertively. "I'm just wording it like that because, uh…"

"I get it," Roman said, letting him off the hook. "You should tell her how you feel while you're away. She'll feel like a queen. It will be a vacation she'll remember forever."

"That was the advice Seth gave me."

Roman smiled again. "It was good advice. You should listen to it."

Dean nodded seriously. "I will."

BREAK

Further along the hallway in the babyface women's locker room, Lucy had also been talking to Alexa about how much she had missed Clementine and wanted to get home to see her. Following that conversation, Alexa brought up her plans for the six days off that were at hand.

"I'm going to get all my stuff unpacked and arranged properly in the house," she said. "It's all there, but some of it is still in boxes, and other stuff has just been put wherever. It was all we had the chance to do last time, before we had to get back on the road."

"It will be good to make your mark on the house, now that Renee's shit is gone," Lucy said.

"Exactly. I might see if Dean will let me do some rearranging with the furniture. It's a lovely house, and the furniture is nice, but it just feels a bit like I'm visiting someone else's house when I'm there. Does that make sense?"

It wasn't an experience Lucy could relate to first hand, but she could certainly see the logic in it. "Talk to Dean about it, that's all I can suggest. Obviously he'll want you to feel at home there, so if some adjustments have to be made, I doubt he'll have a problem with it. He hardly seems like an interior designer, let's be honest. If it was left to him, there would probably be beer bottles and empty pizza boxes all over the floor."

Alexa had to laugh, even as she reprimanded her tag team partner. "That's an awful thing to say."

Lucy's eyes gleamed with humour. "It's a bloody accurate thing to say. I've been traveling with the guy a lot longer than you have, and he's not always on his best behaviour with me like he is with you. You should see some of the states our hire car has ended up in with him in it."

"I must bring the best out of him, then," Alexa teased, feigning a sour expression.

At that moment, a female crew member knocked on the locker room door and walked in. She approached Alexa and Lucy. "Hey, guys. Stephanie would like to see you both in Hunter's office, please."

Glancing at each other, neither Alexa nor Lucy needed to ask if she meant right away. Any summons to see one of the bosses always meant right away, whether Lucy happened to be one of their favourites or not.

"You heard the girl," Lucy said, getting to her feet and leading the way to the door.

The crew member made herself scarce, leaving Twisted Thorne to make their way to Hunter's office.

"What do you think this is about?" Alexa wondered.

Lucy shrugged. "No idea. It's never anything bad when Stephanie wants to see me, though."

I'm sure it's not, Alexa thought, trying hard to supress a smile. Backstage, there were several jokes about Stephanie having a girl crush on Lucy, since she was the one responsible for signing her and for the fact that she had been pushed almost constantly since she had joined the NXT roster. In a way, it was surprising that she had only held the Raw Women's Championship once before the rosters had been merged. Since Twisted Thorne already had the tag titles, it was hard to imagine what reason Stephanie had for wanting a meeting with them.

By the time Alexa had thought through all of that, they had finished the short walk to Hunter's office. Lucy knocked and walked in, with Alexa following behind, as often seemed to be the case.

Stephanie was the only person in the room, sitting on the edge of the desk waiting for them. She greeted them with a broad smile that Alexa suspected was mainly for Lucy's benefit. "Hey, Lucy, Alexa. How are you?"

"Not bad, thanks," Lucy said on their behalf. "How are you?"

"Really good, thank you."

All the better for seeing you, Lucy, Alexa added in her head, laughing inwardly. Stephanie's fawning over her would be a good thing to rib Lucy about, now that they were close enough as a team for her to get away with it without taking a fist to the face as a result.

"You guys were great last week," Stephanie said next. "The fans are absolutely loving you as a team. The angle with Renee seemed to get off to good start. Although, between the three of us in here, I pushed for much more severe action to be taken against her. What she did was out of line in so many ways, and it also risked everything we had invested in Twisted Thorne. Alexa, I'm sorry you had to go through that. People's private affairs shouldn't be made public like that, especially not when it effects business."

"You don't have to apologise on Renee's behalf, Stephanie," Alexa said politely, wishing that some wording other than 'private affairs' had been used.

"We're just trying to move on from it," Lucy put in. "We'll work with her, but we have no time for her. Let's just leave it at that."

"Fair enough," Stephanie said. Turning slightly, she picked up something that had been sitting on the desk behind her. With the item in hand, she stood up and unfurled it, revealing a new Twisted Thorne shirt. It had a slightly modified Twisted Thorne logo on the front, and on the back, they saw as Stephanie turned it around, were the words: _We dare! We will win!_ "This was my idea, after that amazing promo you did last week. What do you think?" she asked, looking primarily at Lucy.

"I like it. I like it a lot," Lucy said sincerely. The part of the promo that was quoted on the shirt had been delivered off the cuff, so she had been pleased that it had been so well received. The stridency with which she had spoken probably had something to do with it.

"I like it too," Alexa said, nodding her appreciation. "If we started to use it as a bit of a catchphrase for the team, I can a lot of people buying them. Plus we'll wear them on-screen of course."

Stephanie nodded. "Of course. I've had some produced already, so I'll make sure we get them to you before the show. As for right now, why don't we record a little video that one of you can upload to introduce the shirts to the fans? We're taking orders for it already on WWE shop, so we can get the ball rolling."

"Okay, why not?" Alexa giggled, taking out her phone and getting the camera mode ready. For some reason, it seemed like a strange suggestion for Stephanie to make.

As Stephanie accepted Alexa's phone, Lucy took the new Twisted Thorne shirt, looking at it closer up, inspecting the detailing in the lettering on the back of it.

Alexa said, "Lucy, I'll introduce the shirt, then you can give the catchphrase at the end, if you like?"

"Works for me," she replied simply.

"Okay, ready when you are," Stephanie said. A moment later, when Lucy and Alexa were standing holding the shirt between them and smiling, she started recording.

"Hey, everybody," Alexa said happily. "Twisted Thorne here. We've got some exciting news that we just had to share with you right away. This is our new shirt design, and it's available right now on WWE Shop dot com!"

"That's right," Lucy said as they turned the shirt around to show off the slogan on the back. "So head over there now and show your support for the Women's Tag Team Champions. And remember, no matter the circumstances: We dare! We will win!"

"Brilliant," Stephanie said after ending the recording. Smiling broadly again, she passed Alexa's phone back to her.

"Thanks, Steph," Lucy said. "I appreciate you having our best interests in mind."

"Of course. You already know how highly I think of you guys as a team. We could be at the start of something extraordinary here. If I can help to push that along a bit, so much the better. While you're here, are there any more problems I should be aware of? Finn and Renee problems, I mean?"

Alexa raised her eyebrows slightly, figuring out the meaning behind those questions and particularly the look in the boss's eyes. It reminded her of a hawk surveying its prey. Even so, Alexa had to be honest with her answer. "No, nothing since that podcast thing."

"Good," Stephanie said with a satisfied smile. "Then I guess that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by."

"No worries," Lucy said. "And thanks for sorting us out with that shirt design. We appreciate it."

"You got it," Stephanie said.

With that, Lucy and Alexa left the office. Once they were a suitable distance away, Alexa looked up at her partner with wide eyes. "Lucy, the way Stephanie asked about Renee and Finn was wild. Tell me I wasn't imagining it, because it looked to me like she's biding her time before firing them both."

Lucy gave a slight shrug, indifferent to the fate of the two people who had gotten themselves on the wrong side of the bosses. "I think the phrase is give them the rope and let them hang themselves. I told you before, I told Steph exactly what happened at the Wrestlemania after party and how I was sick of those two idiots causing shit for you and Dean. If they keep doing it when they've been told to stop, I think she'll stop them for good. It might not come to that, though, after Hunter read Renee the riot act that time. I can't say I have any sympathy anyway; if they worked for me I'd have fucked them off by now."

Alexa set about uploading the video, thinking that she could take comfort from what she had heard over the past few minutes. It seemed that, one way or another, she and Dean would soon be free of the drama from Renee and Finn. With that in mind, she could really look forward to their upcoming week off, which she assumed would be spent at home. "You know what I'm thinking about right now?" she asked as they walked back to the women's locker room.

"What?"

"Lying out in the sun, with nothing to do all day apart from drink cocktails. If we get done with the work around the house, of course."

Lucy smiled. "Well, the cocktails part I can definitely get on-board with."

Little did Alexa know, she would have the chance to do enjoy plenty of them if she wished, just not in Vegas.


	32. Chapter 32

When he and Alexa walked into the airport, Dean hoped to get lucky and find the Nassau, Bahamas flight they were booked on checking-in at the same desk as the Las Vegas flight that she would be expecting them to get. That way, he would be able to keep their destination a surprise for a while longer, until the time came to actually go to the departure gate.

Unfortunately, the Vegas flight was fully booked and had been given its own check-in desk, with a line of people already in front of it. Alexa spotted it at the same moment he did, and started wheeling her case in that direction. "We're over here," she said.

"Actually, no, we're not," Dean said, standing in place.

Turning back to face him, she gave him a quizzical look and pointed at the display above the Vegas desk. "Yes we are. Vegas, look."

"We're not going to Vegas," Dean said, still trying his best to be mysterious about it.

Alexa's expression changed to outright confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Exactly what I said. We're not going to Vegas. We're going somewhere else."

Now Alexa figured out what he was saying. "You've booked a vacation for us?" she asked, excitement taking over and raising her voice.

"Yep."

"Where to?" she asked. "Don't keep me in suspense!"

Dean grinned at her, loving her reaction. It was exactly the kind of thing he had wanted, and it was already making the trip worth the money he had spent on it. "I can't say anything more," he said stubbornly. "Follow me."

Giggling, Alexa fell in step beside him as he walked along the line of check-in desks. She looked at the destinations on each board, wondering which one was going to be theirs. Eventually, he stopped in front of a desk with only a couple of people in line. Reading the destination, Alexa's eyes lit up. "Nassau? That's the Bahamas, right? We're going to the Bahamas?" she exclaimed.

"We are," Dean confirmed, feeling the most excited he had in a long time. It was impossible not to, considering he could see the same emotion all over her face and especially in her eyes. "Actually, we're going to a five star beach-side hotel in Nassau. Sun, sand, and plenty of drink. And anything else you want. After all of the shit we've gone through, I wanted to treat you, darlin'. So, on this trip, whatever you want to do is what we're going to do. Days on the beach; cocktails; banana boats; spa days; whatever you want, it's going to happen."

Alexa laughed loudly. "Banana boats? Where did that come from?"

"They have banana boats there," Dean protested, laughing himself because of how infectious her laughter was.

"I'm sure they do, but I can't picture you on one."

"Yeah, well, I'm a man of many surprises. Like this vacation, for a start. Now go, before we miss the flight."

Still laughing, Alexa said, "Okay, boss. Anything you say."

They walked towards the check-in desk, just as the young woman behind it finished serving the last people who been in line before them. "There you go, not even a line at check-in," Dean said. "We're off to the perfect start already."

"Morning, guys," the check-in agent said cheerily. "Off to Nassau today?"

"Apparently," Alexa said with a big grin.

The girl raised an eyebrow. "Apparently?"

"I just found out, like thirty seconds ago. I thought we were here to fly home to Vegas."

"Oh, right!" the girl exclaimed with a laugh. Looking at Dean, she said, "Then you've found yourself quite the man."

Alexa took the humorous comment seriously, Dean saw. She looked at him with something approaching adoration in her eyes. "Don't I know it," she said.

BREAK

Later that day, after a pleasant, turbulence-free flight and a pain-free check-in at their seafront hotel, Alexa's first request had been to go down to the beach to catch some afternoon sun before it was too late.

Dean had agreed, of course, since he had promised her they would do whatever she wanted. Although she had said she didn't want the trip to be all about her, that it wouldn't be fair on him, Dean had insisted he wanted it to be that way. Deep down, he wanted to prove to her that he was worth the large amount of crap she had gone through to be with him. It was an insecurity he would never have spoken about to anyone, but it was there nonetheless.

"Dean, this is so beautiful," Alexa breathed as they stepped onto the beach, which was pristine white sand for its entire length. The ocean was a picture perfect light blue with barely a hint of any waves. There was not even a great number of people around. "I imagine this is what heaven might look like," she added in wonder.

"I'm glad you like it, darlin'." Putting an arm around her shoulders, Dean gave her a squeeze. With his other hand, he shielded his eyes from the sun. In that regarded, she had an advantage over him. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of aviator sunglasses; a look that he liked on her.

"I don't like it, I love it," she said, nestling against him.

They just stood there for a moment, enjoying how happy they felt. Looking around, Dean saw a little wooden hut where sun loungers could be rented. Near to that was a bar. Perfect, he thought. "There's a place over there renting sun loungers," he said, pointing it out to her.

"Great, let's go."

As they walked across the sand, Alexa found herself linking her hand with his. It wasn't something she could remember them doing before, but it felt right in that moment.

For his part, Dean liked the feeling of her hand in his, and he didn't care in the least if people thought they looked like love struck teenagers. He was proud to have her by his side.

A few minutes later, Dean was carrying a sun lounger under each arm and Alexa had a beer in one hand and a cocktail in the other while they decided on a spot to settle down. She was also carrying a bottle of sun lotion that she had bought at the airport.

Once they were a healthy distance away from anyone else, Dean said, "Here?"

"Yeah, here looks good," she agreed.

Dean quickly set up the two sun loungers, and they settled down under the hot sun with their drinks. After taking the first hit from his plastic cup, he let out a long sigh. "That's nice. This really is the life."

"It is. And that's amazing," Alexa said, referring to the cocktail she had just started. She carefully put it down on the sand and picked up the bottle of sun lotion. "Take you shirt off, baby. I'll put some lotion on for you."

While he was perfectly fine with lying in the sun with his shirt on, Dean wasn't going to turn down the offer of her putting the lotion on for him. He put his beer down next to her cocktail, then took off his shirt and handed it to her.

"Like that check-in agent said, I'm a very lucky girl," she said as she placed his shirt on her sun lounger, then stood up. Her tone made it clear that she was referring to his body, not the vacation they were just starting.

"I'm not doing too badly myself," he replied as he turned over to lie on his front, so that she could start by applying the lotion to his back.

"This will be cold," she warned. Barely giving him time to brace himself, she squirted a large blob of the lotion onto his back.

"Christ," he groaned.

"No complaining; just relax," she told him soothingly, beginning to work her hands on his back.

"Okay, Goddess," he mumbled. The voice she had used had reminded him of the persona she had taken on in the PVC lingerie that he had bought for her.

In the process of applying the lotion to his upper back and shoulders, she did her best to massage his muscles. She found them to be quite tight, not that it was much of a surprise, given how hard they had been pushing themselves at work of late.

"Mmmm, that feels great," he sighed when she dug the ends of her fingers into the muscles in his right shoulder.

"You feel tense, baby," she said, voice barely above a whisper. "Let the Goddess work it all out for you."

The massage was nice enough by itself, but when added to the softness in her voice and the soft lapping of the sea in the background, Dean couldn't remember ever feeling so at peace in his life. "Keep talking like that, darlin'. I don't know why, but it's relaxing me so much. I can't even explain it."

"Don't explain it, just enjoy it," she whispered, leaning down so that her mouth was close to his ear. "The Goddess knows how to relax you."

She continued like that for several minutes, massaging him and whispering little sentences into his ear about feeling calm and relaxed. It got to the point where Dean found himself on the edge of drifting to sleep.

"How's that?" she asked gently. "Feeling better, baby?"

Sensing that she had stood back up, Dean slowly sat up and looked at her. "I've genuinely never felt more relaxed than I do right now. I don't know what you were doing, or how, by I really enjoyed it."

"It's called ASMR," Alexa explained. "I don't know a great deal about it myself, but I have listened to it from time to time when I've been unable to sleep for whatever reason. It's something to do with the way certain sounds make your brain react. It can be whispering, tapping on things, rustling things. It's different for different people. For some, it probably doesn't work at all. Safe to say, whispering works for you."

"Yeah, I guess it does," Dean agreed, still finding the experience a little bit surreal.

"Would you like me to do that again at some point?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I would."

"Right now though, I need to finish putting the lotion on you."

"I'm not complaining," Dean said as he turned over to lie on his back.

"I'm sure you're not. But when I'm done, it's your turn to do it for me."

"I think I can manage that."

While Alexa's hands worked on his stomach, rubbing the lotion into his skin, Dean reached down and picked up his beer. Considering he had intended this trip to be all about Alexa having a great time, he hadn't gotten off to a bad start himself.

Relaxing back on the lounger, he took a large hit from the plastic cup and turned his attention to later in the evening. Once they were done on the beach, he planned to take her to dinner in the hotel's restaurant. Having scoped it out earlier, he had seen that it was a fairly classy place to eat. Hopefully the food would be up to the same standard. It was over that meal that he intended to tell her his reasoning behind wanting to bring her to Nassau, ending by telling her that he loved her. Saying those words for the first time was a special moment in any relationship, and he wanted it to be especially so for them.

For a long time while he had been with Renee, Dean had thought that she was the one person who would come into his life who he would be able to love. But now that he was with Alexa, he realised that he hadn't even properly experienced the emotion before. What he felt for her was what love was really like; he could see that now. Maybe that was an explanation as to why he'd felt like he had to bail on Renee when she had started talking about settling down and having kids. Maybe he had subconsciously known she was not the one for him. Looking it at that way definitely seemed to make sense to him now, with hindsight.

While he had been deep in thought, Alexa had finished applying the sun lotion to his stomach and chest. "You can do your arms and face now, then it's my turn," she said, offering him the bottle. When he didn't take it straight away, a look of concern appeared on her face. "You okay, Dean?"

"Yeah, sorry," he said, shaking off his thoughts and taking the bottle from her. "I was just thinking about dinner later."

Getting the wrong end of the stick, she assumed he meant he had been thinking about the food. "Typical man. All you think about is beer and food," she chuckled as she returned to her sun lounger and lay down on her front.

Dean downed the rest of his beer and put the plastic cup down with a flourish as he added to her comment, "And hot chicks."

"Ah, of course. Hot chicks, too," she agreed, voice muffled with her head resting on her arms.

He got off his lounger and prepared to get to work with the lotion on her back. "Luckily, I already got me one of those."

Alexa said nothing, glad that he wouldn't be able to see her cheeks reddening. As someone who had always had body confidence issues, it made her feel so special to hear him say that. He soon reverted to his usual less thoughtful self by squirting a large amount of cold lotion onto her back without warning, making her squeal in surprise.

"Sorry, darlin'," he said.

For a minute or so, Alexa lay there and relaxed, enjoying his hands working her skin and muscles, albeit with less skill than she had brought to the task. Even so, lying there in such an idyllic location, with her man, with another five days of vacation in front of them, she couldn't imagine there being a happier person in the world. "Dean?" she asked, lifting her head slightly so that he could hear her better.

"I'm being as gentle as I can."

"No, I was just going to say again, thank you so much for arranging all of this for me. For us, I mean. It really does mean so much to me. I feel so happy right now, and it's all because of you." She nearly added three more words to the end of the sentence. After she had stopped herself, a large part of her wished she had gone ahead and said it. She felt sure she would tell him she loved him by the end of the vacation. After all, there was no doubt in her mind that it was the truth.

I love you, too, darlin', Dean thought, having picked up on the fact she had stopped herself saying something more. It seemed pretty obvious what that thing was, and that made it even more important to him that he should beat her to saying it first. As perfect as the beach was, dinner couldn't come soon enough.


	33. Chapter 33

The downside of Dean making the vacation a surprise was that they hadn't been able to go home and re-pack their cases with clean clothes. Although the hotel had a laundry service for them to make use of, that didn't help them any when it came to getting ready for dinner on their first night of the vacation. In any event, neither of them had taken any formal wear on the European tour, which was still the luggage they had with them.

"Will I pass?" Dean asked when Alexa walked out of the bathroom. While she had been in there, he had changed into a pair of jeans and the one shirt that had been in his case, which was surprisingly not too creased.

"Yeah, I think so," she said coyly, looking him up and down. "What about me?"

Dean took in her outfit, comprising a pair of black pants, a plain grey T-shirt and a leather jacket. Simple outfit or not, she still looked stunning. "Always," he told her as he stepped forward. She stretched up on tiptoes and they exchanged a peck on the lips.

"Thank you, baby. Let's go. I could eat a horse right now."

"I'm not sure they serve horses here, darlin'. It's five star, don't you know?" he added in a haughty, posh accent.

Grinning, she put on a similar accent herself. "Yes, and so it should be. We're five star guests."

Dean laughed loudly as they headed for the door. "A five star frog splash is the closest I've ever come."

Now it was her turn to laugh. "I refuse to believe you've ever done a five star frog splash."

"Good point," he conceded with good humour as he held the door open for her.

They made their way down to the ground floor of the hotel and into the restaurant. Unsurprisingly, it was busy, but Dean had made a reservation earlier in the day, so they were guaranteed a table. When their turn came to be seated, they were greeted by a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties at most. She wore a small pin with the word trainee on it. "Good evening," she said with consummate politeness and professionalism.

"Evening," Dean replied casually, making Alexa try her best not to start giggling. Formality was so alien to him that it was endearing. "We have a reservation. Name's Ambrose."

"One moment, please," the young woman said, checking her list of reservations. "Ah, there we are." She looked back up at them. "Mr and Mrs Ambrose, your table is ready for you. Follow me, please."

As they started off across the restaurant, Alexa looked up at Dean with wide eyes and a big smile. She silently mouthed the words, 'Mr and Mrs Ambrose.' In her drive to be polite, the server had made the mistake of assuming their marital status. For Alexa, it was funny rather than offensive.

"This is your table, sir, ma'am," the server said as she put two menus down on the table top. "Your server will be along momentarily to take your drink order."

"Thank you," Alexa said politely.

Dean smirked as they took their seats. "I don't think I can even spell momentarily."

Alexa grinned to acknowledge the joke, then looked around the restaurant. "Dean, this is so nice. I really appreciate you bringing me here, but it's going to cost a fortune!"

"Don't worry about that, darlin'," he told her. Since he had been with her, Dean had noticed how little being relatively well off thanks to her well-paying WWE contract had changed her. It was still obvious that she had come from a family who hadn't been able to afford the finer things in life, and she didn't like extravagance for that reason. Usually, he felt much the same way, but not when it came to treating his girl on their first vacation together. As far as that was concerned, there was no price too great. Seeing her happy made it all more than worth it.

"But I do worry. You must have spent so much money on this trip already."

"Please forget the money," he urged. "Life's not all about money. I wanted us to come here together and have an amazing time that we would never forget. I don't care what it costs."

"Okay," Alexa agreed, determined to try her best to look at the rest of the trip that way. The last thing she wanted to do was upset him.

A server approached their table and took their drink order. Dean opted for a beer, while Alexa chose a bottle of red wine, deciding that it felt more appropriate than a cocktail, given their surroundings.

"So, what would you like to do tomorrow?" Dean asked once the server had departed. "More time on the beach, maybe? Or a day in the spa? Did you see the price list they have in the room? There's so many different kind of massages, beauty treatments and all that stuff that I've never even heard of before."

"You're absolutely sure you want me to decide what we're going to do?" she asked, still not entirely comfortable with the whole trip revolving around her, even though he had been perfectly clear about it right from the start.

Dean nodded. "Absolutely sure."

"Okay then," she said thoughtfully. "How about a room service breakfast in bed, followed by a trip to the sauna I saw on the list of facilities. After that, we can just go for a walk around and explore."

"If that's what you'd like, it's what we'll do," he promised.

To his great surprise, he saw her eyes tearing up and she looked away from him.

"What's up, darlin'?" he asked, nonplussed.

"Nothing," she mumbled, looking down at the table and trying to wipe her eyes. "You're just so amazing to me, Dean. You say the sweetest things; you do everything you can to make me happy; you don't care how much you spend to treat me to a great time; I just don't feel like I deserve it all. And I don't feel like I'm as good to you as you are to me."

"Hey," Dean said as gently as he could. "Look at me." She looked up, and he took her hand at the same time. "You deserve everything I say and do. You're a truly wonderful person, Alexa. You say I do everything to make you happy? You do that for me, too. I was only thinking earlier today when we were on the beach that I couldn't ever remember feeling so happy in my life. I'm not good at saying things like this, as I'm sure you know, but I believe there is one person out there in life for everyone; a person they're meant to be with. I think you're that person for me. That's why I wanted to treat you as much as I could on this vacation: to show you how much you mean to me. I love you," he finished earnestly, looking her in the eyes, wanting to commit the moment to memory. It wasn't the speech he had planned in advance, but he felt it had come out okay.

"Oh, Dean," she said, squeezing his hand tightly, using her other hand to wipe her eyes as she spoke. "I'm never going to forget that. Everything you just said means so much to me, and I feel exactly the same way about you. I love you, baby."

With that, they both leaned over the table so that they could exchange a brief kiss.

Only a moment later, their server returned with their drinks and poured Alexa's first glass of wine for her. "Thank you," she said with a kind smile.

The server then took their food orders. After she left the table to put the order in, Dean raised his glass. "I guess this is where I say 'to us'. Or is that lame?"

"Not at all," Alexa replied, raising her own glass. "To us. The happiest couple in the world."

That, Dean could definitely drink to.

BREAK

Two hours later, there was less conversation taking place across the table. The long day which had started for Dean and Alexa in a hotel room back in America – it was crazy for them to even think that now – was taking its toll on them. Traveling, lying in the sun, drinking plenty of alcohol and eating a delectable three course meal certainly hadn't helped matters.

Dean finished off his latest beer and put the glass down on the table. There were no other empties there; the restaurant staff were too efficient for that. "That's me done," he announced. "I couldn't eat anything else if I tried, and I don't think more beer is a good idea, either. I don't want to be hanging tomorrow morning, when there's things we want to get out and do."

"Good point," Alexa agreed, giving the bottle of wine a wary glance. She had already put most of it away. "I think I'm done, too," she decided.

Hearing that, Dean signalled to their server for the check. It didn't take long to arrive, and he paid for it with his credit card.

"Thank you, sir. Have a good night," the server said, and walked away.

"All set?" Dean asked Alexa.

"Yeah," she said, pushing her chair back from the table.

They left the restaurant and headed for the elevators, hand in hand. "Thank you so much for that, Dean. I had a lovely night. The food was incredible."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," he replied as he pushed the button to call one of the three elevators. While they waited, he couldn't help letting out a yawn.

Immediately, Alexa yawned also, in that strange way that they seemed to spread between people. "Don't start that," she teased him tiredly.

"Sorry." Dean found himself wondering if she was expecting sex. Rarely for him, he actually preferred the idea of getting to sleep. It had been a very long day, and he wanted to be fresh in the morning for their first full day of vacation. The loud ping when one of the elevators arrived almost made him jump.

As they rode up to the fifteenth floor in the elevator car, Alexa stood resting her head against Dean's shoulder. Feeling very tired, she hoped he wasn't expecting sex. They made love often, but on this particular night she would rather just cuddle up in bed and sleep. She supposed she ought to bring it up once they got back to the room.

A couple of minutes later, they were walking into the room. While Alexa took off her shoes, Dean flopped down onto the bed, looking beaten.

"Dean," she ventured tentatively.

"What's up, darlin'?" he asked, looking up at the ceiling.

"I don't want to sound awful, since we just said 'I love you' for the first time, but I'm so tired. Would you think it was wrong of me if I said I just want to get some sleep?"

Dean allowed his head to roll to the side so that he could look at her. "No, I wouldn't mind. I'm okay with getting some sleep so we can get up bright and early tomorrow and make the most of our time here."

"Aww, that sounds good," she said, walking over to the bed. She lay down beside him, both looking up at the ceiling. He worked his arm under her neck so that she was resting on it, and she snuggled up against him.

"Besides," he added to his previous sentence, "There's plenty of time tomorrow for sex."

"Good point," she said in a sultry tone.

They lay there for a minute or two, just enjoying relaxing. Neither of them seemed able to find the energy to get ready for bed. "Can I ask you something?" he asked eventually.

Alexa noted it as strange for him. He was usually a lot more direct than that. "Of course," she encouraged him.

"I was thinking, uh, how much did you enjoy it the other week when I tied you up?"

"Oh," she said, surprised by the question. She turned to look at him, trying to figure out why he had asked it. Clearly, he liked to introduce bondage to sex. But had she not made it enjoyable for him somehow? Or did he have the impression that she might have tolerated it for his benefit rather than actually enjoying it? If so, she had to put his mind at rest. "I had never tried anything like that, until that first time you put that bra in my mouth as a gag. I was nervous about it, and it wasn't very comfortable, as I told you afterwards. But after the second time we did it, a couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed it."

"And being tied up?" he asked, looking back at her.

"That made it better. The main thing that turned me on was the feeling of total vulnerability. If you remember, I encouraged you to tie my ankles. I felt vulnerable before, but I wanted it to go all the way; unable to talk or cry out, or to move at all. My body and my desires were yours to do what you wanted with, and that's a powerful feeling. I'm sure you felt the same way, at the opposite end of the scale."

Her answer was turning Dean on quickly, making him regret agreeing to put off sex for the night. "Yeah, I did. Definitely. But you said you didn't like the gag," he pointed out.

"I didn't like the gag you used," she clarified. "The idea of being gagged is not a problem, but that thing hurt my mouth and made me drool everywhere because I couldn't close my mouth or swallow properly. That's why I suggested trying tape or something."

Dean remembered the suggestion only too well. He had mentioned that he liked the way her glossy pink lips looked, so she had wondered if there was some kind of transparent tape they could find. So far, he hadn't looked into that. "So if we bought some tape, you would let me use it on you?"

Her answer was yes, but she sensed an opportunity to fire him up and build his anticipation for when it happened. "Let you? I wouldn't just let you, I want you to."

Dean felt his chest flutter, even though he sensed she was talking like that specifically to get that exact reaction.

"Dean?" she asked, before he could say anything else.

"Yeah?"

She turned her head to look at him again. "Did you do that kind of thing with Renee?"

It didn't take a genius to figure out that danger lay behind that question. Luckily, he could give an honest answer. Looking her in the eye, he said, "No. I'd never tried it until that first time I gagged you, either. I didn't even plan to do it then. You said something about me not being able to stop you talking, that bra was lying next to you, so I just did it. And once I'd done it, I found it a hell of a turn on."

"Okay," she smiled sweetly. "Then while we're on our walk around tomorrow, maybe we can find somewhere to buy some tape."

"I can't wait," he said, not bothering to try and hide his enthusiasm.

Alexa leaned over and kissed him slowly, allowing her lips to linger on his and letting out a low, "Mmmm," just like she would if her mouth was covered. "Well, you'll have to wait," she said in her quiet, ASMR style whisper, eyes locked with his. "If you're lucky, this time tomorrow I'll be wearing nothing but tape."

With that, all hopes Dean had of getting a good night's sleep went straight out of the window.

 


	34. Chapter 34

As soon as he walked out of the hotel, Dean raised a hand to shield his eyes against the bright sun. It was beating down at them out of a cloudless sky. "I guess I chose the right place for the weather," he said.

"You sure did," Alexa agreed as she walked out of the revolving door just behind him, having stopped to put her sunglasses on. She took his hand and said, "I don't know what's hotter: this weather, or that sauna we've just been in."

"You really liked that, didn't you?" he asked, looking down at her.

"Sure did. I love a sauna session from time to time. It feels very cleansing."

Dean could have said that it had felt more like dying than pleasure to him, but he decided to focus on the fact that she had enjoyed herself. That was his primary aim for this vacation, after all. He just had to hope it would be the only sauna visit of the week.

"You need to get some sunglasses, babe," she said next, before he had the chance to respond to her previous comment.

"Not a bad idea. I'm sure we'll find somewhere selling them while we walk around."

Alexa looked up and down the beachside road, seeing stores and hotels in both directions. "Which way shall we go?"

"I don't mind," Dean shrugged. "Let's go one way and try and made sure we end up coming back the other way so that we see everything."

"Good plan," she agreed. "But let's cross the road and walk next to the beach. It's so beautiful here, Dean. I'm sure I could stay here forever.

"Sadly, we only have a few days. Come on, let's have a look around."

They crossed over the road and began walking along the side of the beach, alternating between looking at the amazing view on one side of them, and the stores on the opposite side of the street. As they walked, they chatted away about things that they might possibly do later in the week. Then a thought came to Alexa. "Wait a minute! I know why you had us cross the street and walk over here. You don't want me to keep going in those stores!"

Dean laughed loudly. "You might have been right, apart from one thing. It was you who suggested walking on this side."

Alexa laughed incredulously. "No it wasn't!"

"It was!" Dean insisted even more strongly, still laughing. "You said you wanted to walk next to the beach because of how nice it looked!"

As soon as she heard that, Alexa remembered that he was right. But she had no intention of admitting that now that she had started disputing it. "I did not!" she insisted. "I said I'd walk over here after you suggested it."

Her act obviously hadn't been convincing enough because Dean just looked at her and shook his head, laughing yet again. "You're not getting me with that one. You know what you said just as well as I do."

"Nope," she insisted defiantly, standing hands on hips. To her surprise, Dean picked her up with his hands under her butt, making her squeal in a mixture of surprise and enjoyment. She always liked it when he did that, but she certainly hadn't expected him to do it in the middle of the street.

Dean plonked her down on the wall that separated the sidewalk from the beach. Its height meant that Alexa was now sitting with her head height level with his. She was giggling again, and that made him join in. Neither of them cared in the least that they looked like teenagers in a first relationship to everyone that was walking past them. "Now, admit that you were wrong," Dean said gruffly.

"No," Alexa said firmly. Instead, she pulled him towards her and began kissing him passionately. They both temporarily forgot where they were, lost in their desire and love for each other. Alexa ran her fingers through his scruffy hair, using her hands to hold his head close to her. Meanwhile, Dean wrapped his arms around her, grunting in pleasure into her mouth.

Little did they know, two wrestling fans were also walking along that particular sidewalk that morning. The two young men, one dark haired, one blonde, were out getting some fresh air, hoping that it would help to clear away the remnants of their hangovers from the previous night's heavy drinking session.

"No way!" the dark haired fan exclaimed to his friend, stopping in his tracks. The sight of Alexa Bliss snogging the face off Dean Ambrose had quickly perked him up. "Look over there. It's Alexa Bliss and Dean Ambrose, and they're really going for it! I didn't know they were even together."

The blonde guy looked over at the couple in question and laughed dismissively. They were so deeply involved in the kissing that it was hard to make out their faces. "Are you sure it's them?" he asked doubtfully.

"Look, that's blatantly Dean Ambrose," his friend said, taking his phone out of the pocket on his shorts. "And the girl has pink in her hair and she's about three feet talk. I'm telling you it's them. I'm going to get a picture. We might even make some money out of this." With that, he pointed his phone at the happy couple and took a few pictures, wanting to guarantee himself at least one good shot. He was just in time, because Dean and Alexa stopped kissing, exchanged a few words, then she hopped down off the wall.

"Oh shit, it is them!" the blonde said, now that Dean and Alexa were walking towards them.

"Shut up, you idiot. Don't let on that we recognised them." The two men continued walking, passing by the oblivious wrestlers. Once they were out of earshot again, he said, "When we get back to the hotel, I'm going to hit up some websites and see if they'll pay any money for these pics. A bit extra to spend while we're here wouldn't hurt."

Both men laughed, not caring in the least about whether or not Alexa and Dean were ready for their relationship to go public.

* * *

"Very suave," was Alexa's verdict of Dean now that he had his new sunglasses on. He had just bought them from a specialist store that they had happened across on their walk around Nassau's seafront shopping area.

"If you say so," he said. "I figured if I was going to buy some, they might as well be good ones."

"Agreed. One thing I never buy cheap is sunglasses," Alexa said. Her own aviator style glasses were specially polarised to filter out all of the sun's most powerful rays, while giving a reflective silver look from the other side.

Buying some glasses for Dean had been the only objective of the walk, other than exploring. At a leisurely pace, they continued wandering around, eventually finding themselves back on the road where their hotel was, in the opposite direction from where they had started their trip.

"Just how I planned it," Dean boasted.

"Yeah, right," Alexa giggled. "Like you had any idea where we were going the whole time."

"Of course I did," he objected, even though she was right on the money. "My sense of direction is second to none."

"Mmm hmm," she said shaking her head. Across the street from where they were, there was a pier stretching out into the clear blue sea, with several boats moored against it. "Let's have a walk down the pier," she suggested. "Then maybe we can find somewhere to buy ice cream. I'm so hot!"

"You got that right," Dean said in a deep voice, making his meaning perfectly clear.

"Pig!" she said playfully, slapping him on the arm.

"Honestly, you can't even compliment a woman these days," Dean complained as they crossed the street.

Alexa just grinned, taking in the astonishing view around them once again.

"So, what's the plan for the rest of the afternoon?" Dean asked. "It's not been that long since we had breakfast, so I don't feel like eating yet."

"No, neither do I. At least, nothing more than ice cream. I don't mind what we do. Maybe we can just chill on the beach for a while. Or…" she added, drawing the word out. They had just reached an advertisement board beside one of the moored up boats, promoting snorkelling trips at discounted rates for that week only. While she didn't believe a word about the alleged discount, Alexa had always wanted to try snorkelling. The opportunity had never presented itself, until now.

"You want to go on that?" Dean asked sceptically, pointing at the advertisement.

"Yeah. I've always wanted to try snorkelling. I've heard it's a lot of fun, and you can see some amazing things. Look at how clear the water is here; I bet it's perfect for it. It'll be nice and warm, too."

Dean had no great enthusiasm for the idea, but he wasn't against it. And the prices on the board seemed quite reasonable, he had to admit. "Okay, darlin', let's do it," he agreed with a smile. "Who do we speak to about this?"

"That would be me," a female voice said from behind them. They turned around to find an attractive woman with long blonde hair, who looked to be around thirty. "Hi, guys. I'm Olivia, and this is my boat," she said, gesturing to the immaculate vessel beside the pier. The boat probably wasn't new, but it was cleaned and maintained to a standard that made it look like it was.

"Nice boat," Dean said appreciatively, looking at it.

"Thank you," Olivia smiled graciously. "She's my pride and joy."

"The Great White Shark?" Alexa queried, reading the name on the bow. "We're not going to see any of them out there, are we?"

"No," Olivia grinned. "There are lots of amazing fish to see, but no sharks. If you want to see some, there's another tour I do on weekends…"

"No, thank you," Alexa said quickly, raising her hands. "We'll stick to the little fish, please."

"No problem. But if you're thinking of joining us today, we leave in under an hour," Olivia said, checking what looked like a diver's watch on her left wrist.

"Do we, uh, need to go back to the hotel and change?" Alexa asked uncertainly. "What do you even wear on a snorkelling trip?

"I can provide you with wetsuits to change into before you go into the water, so you're fine to come on-board dressed as you are. Rental of the rest of the gear comes included in the price, too. Mask, snorkel, fins, and a buoyancy vest. I have large selection of all those on-board, so we'll have something that fits you. Trust me, you won't be disappointed."

You're not a bad saleswoman, Olivia, Dean thought. "Okay, we're in," he said, reaching into his shorts pocket for his wallet. He counted out the bills to pay for two people and handed them over.

"Thank you," Olivia said as she took and counted the money. "You can go on-board now if you'd like, or you can come back later. Please be in plenty of time, though."

"I'm okay to go on-board now, if you are?" Alexa asked Dean.

"Sure," he agreed.

"Great. After you," Olivia said, gesturing to the little gangway that led onto the boat.

Dean let Alexa go first, then followed her onto the boat. There was an open door to their right, through which the boat's main structure could be accessed.

"Head inside, guys, and we can get you set up with your gear," Olivia said, following them onto the boat.

A short while later, Alexa and Dean were in possession of a full complement of gear each, all of which fitted them well. While Olivia moved on to help the next couple who were waiting, they made their way back out on deck so that they could relax in the sun while waiting for the boat to leave.

"I kind of feel bad," Alexa admitted when they sat down on a padded seat at the back of the boat.

"Why?" Dean asked, dumping his gear on the deck beside him.

"Because we're doing what I want all the time. I know you keep saying that's what you want to do, but I want you to have a good time, too."

"I'm having a good time," Dean assured her. "The weather's stunning, and I'm sure I'll enjoy this once we get in the water. It wouldn't have been my first choice of activity, I admit, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy it. Honestly, don't worry about me, I'm fine. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is looking like a dick with all this gear on."

Alexa burst out laughing. "What do you mean? Snorkelling gear is cool!" she exclaimed ironically. "You know what we should do? Put it on and get someone to take our picture, then put it in the group chat."

Dean knew she meant the group chat they were both in, along with Seth, Roman and Lucy. It would be a good laugh for them, he thought. "Why not?" he shrugged. "If I'm going to look a dick, I might as well do it in front of all my closest friends."

Laughing again, Alexa started putting her gear on, apart from the wetsuit. Struggling into that wasn't worth it just for a picture. "We're even colour co-ordinated," she realised when Dean put his mask on. Both of their mask and snorkel sets were all black, their fins dark blue.

Before lowering her mask over her face, Alexa approached a group of four young women who were chatting away nearby. "Hey, guys. Could one of you take a picture for me please?"

"Sure," one of them asked, taking the offered phone and following Alexa back over to Dean.

Alexa walked over and stood next to Dean, who was waiting with his mask and fins on. "Snorkel in, too," she instructed him as she made her own mask comfortable. Rolling his eyes, Dean complied, then she followed suit.

The young girl took the picture, then laughed when she saw the result. "Get that one framed, guys."

Alexa took her mask and snorkel back off, then took her phone. "Thanks," she said to the girl. "Pride of place on the wall, that picture's going to have."

Chuckling, the girl went to re-join her group.

"Fuck's sake," Dean sighed, looking over Alexa's shoulder at the picture. "I can't believe you got me to do that."

"Yep. And now it's going in the group chat," she said, even as she was sending it.

With that done, they sat back down and started chatting away. Alexa kept her phone on her lap, waiting for the inevitable ribbing from the others in the group chat. After a few minutes, her phone vibrated. Looking at the screen, she saw that a message had been received not from the group chat, but directly from Lucy.

"It's Lucy," she told Dean as she opened the message.

"Oh God, what did she say?" he asked, expecting her to be milking the chance to ridicule him for all it was worth. He knew he would have done so if it was the other way around.

As he asked the question, Alexa had started to read the message. "Oh," she said in shock. Then she read the message aloud to him. "Clementine's mom died suddenly this morning. Early indications are a haemorrhage, as a side effect of her brain tumour."

 


	35. Chapter 35

After getting the awful news from Lucy about Clementine's mom, Alexa had not been able to enjoy the snorkelling trip as much as she had expected to. Seeing so many wonderfully coloured fish had been remarkable, but she hadn't been able to stop thinking about what poor little Clem was going through back home. She had lost both of her parents in the space of a few months; her father to a car accident and her mother to a brain tumour. What an awful thing to have to live through at only ten years of age.

"You okay, darlin'?" Dean asked.

They had just gotten off the boat after the snorkelling trip and had made their way off the pier. Alexa hadn't spoken a word since thanking Olivia, the boat's captain, at the top of the gangway.

"I'm just thinking about Clem," she said, stopping walking and leaning against the wall that separated the sidewalk from the beach. "The poor thing must be heart-broken. Seth and Lucy must be, too, seeing her so upset. I wish there was something we could do."

"Yeah," Dean said sombrely. "No kid should have to go through what she's going through. If there's one positive, at least Seth and Lucy stepped up to adopt her. Otherwise she'd be looking at going into the foster system now."

"I guess there's that," Alexa agreed. At least Clem had two 'parents' who would care for her and love her. Nobody who had seen Seth and Lucy with her could possibly doubt that fact. Then she remembered an offer she had made to Lucy some time back. "Dean? There's something I'd like us to do."

"What's that, darlin'?"

"Next time we have a few days off work, I'd like to invite Seth, Lucy and Clem out to our place. It would be a lovely time, and I'm sure they would be in need of something like that by the time we actually get chance to do it. I did mention it to Lucy before, and she said she would be up for it."

"Then we'll do it," Dean said, not needing to think about it. Surprisingly, since he was no fan of kids in general, he had found that he actually liked Clementine. Being uncle Dean for a few days would be fun, as, of course, spending time with Seth and Lucy would be.

"I'll talk to her about it in a couple of weeks, once Clem's over the worst of the shock. Safe to say we won't be seeing Lucy or Seth at Raw when we get back," she added.

"Nope. Hunter promised them time off when Clem's mom died. I guess they'll have to come up with some creative to explain why they're not there for a week or two."

"Yeah," Alexa mumbled, looking down at the floor.

"Hey," Dean said gently, lifting her chin so that she had to look at him. "They wouldn't want it to ruin our vacation. You know that, right?"

"I know, you're right," she said, giving him a peck on the lips. "It's just hard to stop thinking about it."

Dean offered his hand, she took it, and they started walking in the direction of the hotel. "How about getting something to eat?" he suggested, wanting to get her focused on something else. Also, being out in the sea air and doing plenty of swimming had fired up his appetite.

"Good idea. I'm quite hungry," Alexa said. "Let's not eat at the hotel, though. We should look around and see what other places there are."

"I saw a seafood place earlier when we were walking around that looked nice," he suggested.

Nodding, Alexa said, "Okay, let's get seafood. But if you do that see food joke when you stick your tongue out with a load of food on it…"

Dean laughed. "As if I would do something childish like that."

"As if," she echoed, rolling her eyes.

* * *

"Wow, that was amazing," Alexa said as they walked out of the seafood restaurant an hour and a half later. "There's nothing quite like freshly caught fish."

"Right," Dean agreed. "You have to have it at least once whenever you go somewhere like this. So, where to next? The beach? Back to the hotel?"

"Depends what you have in mind if we go to the hotel?" she asked, using the slightly sultry tone that always got him on the hook straight away.

The girl wanted sex. She would get no argument from him. Leaning down, Dean nipped at her neck. "I can think of things that would make it more fun than lying on the beach."

Alexa quivered at his touch. He knew her neck was one of her weak points, and made no qualms about exploiting it. "I guess I could be persuaded to pass up on catching some sun for today, if we made up for it tomorrow," she temporised.

"Darlin' we can spend all day on the beach tomorrow. Beer for me. Cocktails for you. Plenty of sun, and plenty of R and R."

"Now that sounds perfect," Alexa said, giving him one of her most dazzling smiles.

"Okay then, back to the hotel," Dean said, grabbing her hand and setting off at a brisk pace, knowing that it would make her laugh.

Sure enough, she was giggling instantly. "Easy tiger. We've got the rest of the afternoon and all night to have fun."

"No complaints here," he said.

A moment later, Alexa noticed that they were approaching a pharmacy. "Dean, can we go in here?" she asked, pointing to it. "I just remembered I'm running a bit low on my pill."

"Okay," he agreed. "Just don't ask me to stand there browsing through women's contraception products."

"Why not?" she queried innocently. "Embrace your feminine side, Dean."

"I don't have one," he said indignantly, making her burst out laughing again.

They walked into the pharmacy, and Alexa quickly found the aisle she needed. Dean followed her, trying his best to look invisible.

"There you go. Wasn't so bad, was it?" she asked once she had found the pills she needed to purchase.

"We're not out of here yet," he pointed out uncomfortably, causing more giggling.

On the way to the sales counter at the front of the store, another item caught Alexa's attention. "Dean, look at this," she said, stopping to pick up the item in question.

"If it's tampons, I'm running for the door," he groaned. Reluctantly, he turned and walked back to her.

"No, look," she said, showing him what she had found.

"What is it?" he asked, taking the small cardboard package from her. He saw that it was a roll of sticking plaster called Elastoplast.

"You want something to tape my mouth up with. I bet that would be perfect," she said thoughtfully. The look in her eyes conveyed that if anyone wanted her mouth taped, it was her more than him. That was perfect, as far as he was concerned.

"Would it be sticky enough?" he wondered.

"It's sticking plaster, Dean. Its entire purpose is to be sticky, and on skin at that."

"Good point." Looking around to make sure no one was watching, Dean opened the packaging and took out the roll of peach-coloured plaster. It was two inches wide; plenty big enough to cover a mouth.

While he held the roll, Alexa unpicked the end of it and tested the stickiness with her fingers. "Wow, it really is sticky," she said in surprise. Looking up at him, she added, "This will make a really good gag."

Dean knew she had said that just to fire him up, but he didn't care in the least. Even he realised what a lucky bastard he was that she would get so into what he wanted to do.

Alexa wasn't done. She knew only too well what she was doing to him, and she was thoroughly enjoying every second. Taking the packing from him, she read aloud from the back of it. "Reliably strong. Longer lasting sticking power. Stretches with every movement." She looked at him again. "I bet there's no way I'll be able to get that off without using my hands."

"Then we should buy it," Dean said, wondering why he wasn't feeling faint. She was such a tease, and she was very good at it.

"It won't be any good for tying me, though, if it's flexible," she went on.

"Trust me, I've got that covered," he assured her. With that, he put the roll of Elastoplast and the empty packaging back on the shelf, then picked up an unopened one, making Alexa laugh yet again as they headed to pay for their two purchases.

* * *

By the time they got back to their hotel room, Alexa was already turned on, knowing what was in store for her. The walk back to the hotel had been five of the most frustrating minutes of her life, and she was more than able to tell that Dean felt the same way. At least, she thought, they had such a ferocious sexual appetite for each other. That could only be a good thing for their relationship.

She walked over to the mirror, intending to let her hair down. She had put it up in a simple ponytail after they had gotten out of the ocean when their snorkelling excursion had ended.

"No. Leave it like that," Dean instructed her, wanting to take charge of the situation from the start.

"You're the boss," she said as he stepped up behind her. Already, this was feeling reminiscent of the last time she had been bound. That had started in front of a hotel room mirror.

"Damn right I am. Right now, at least." Dean removed the roll of Elastoplast from the packaging and tossed the box aside onto the floor. Wasting no time, he stretched a long length of the material out from the roll and tore it off.

"You're very eager," Alexa observed, using the mirror to watch what he was doing. Even that comment was designed to fire him up.

"How could I not be, after what you were saying in that pharmacy? You don't realise the self-control I had to find not to do anything right there and then."

"Tying me up turns you on that much?" she asked, her face a picture of innocence in the mirror.

"And gagging you," he confirmed. "Now, let's see how well this works, shall we?" Before she could reply, Dean pressed the sticking plaster down across her mouth, then smoothed either end down onto her cheeks, making sure it was stuck down as tightly as possible. To ensure that the area over her lips also sealed to the fullest extent, he put his hand over it to hold it down.

"Mmmmph," she grunted behind his hand, seeing her own wide eyes in the mirror. Pressing down hard on her mouth wasn't something she had expected him to do, but he only kept the hand there for a moment. When he took it away, she could quite clearly see the outline of her lips under the plaster. The flexible nature of the material had allowed it to contour around her mouth, further helping to seal it up.

"Fuck, that looks hot," Dean breathed, touching running a finger over the shape of her bottom lip. The plaster was only a little darker than her skin, giving a much better look than silver duct tape would have done, in his opinion. "Can you talk?" he asked her.

Alexa tried to say that she didn't think so. The words came out as indistinguishable mumbling noises. She saw the plaster move slightly as she tried to speak, but behind it, it felt like her mouth was literally glued shut by the adhesive. Trying to open it wider to work the gag off was impossible. As she had correctly predicted earlier, either her or Dean pealing it off was the only way it would come free. She had no doubt that she wouldn't get the chance to do so herself.

"Not going to come off, is it?" Dean wondered, checking each end again with his fingers.

"Nmm," she assured him.

"Good girl," he told her, feeling himself hardening already. For some reason, he even found the fact that she was being made to look at herself in the mirror a turn on. Maybe it was because it would emphasise her vulnerability to her. She had spoken previously about enjoying that aspect of it.

"Undress yourself, and don't try and touch the gag," he told her, talking softly with his mouth close to her ear. As tempting as it was to take her clothes off himself, ordering her to do it and watching her held its own satisfaction.

"Mpphhhh?" she squeaked, looking into his eyes in the mirror.

Dean had no idea what she had wanted to say, but it didn't really matter. The point was, she hadn't done as she had been told, and he was the one in charge. "Just do it," he said gruffly.

What Alexa been trying to do was object to having to undress herself. She wanted Dean to do it; to be assertive and forceful throughout the experience. She wanted him to roughly pull her clothes off, tie her up and leave her helpless to resist whatever he wanted to do to her. The obvious problem was that she couldn't communicate those things to him now. Frustrated, she realised she should have done it as soon as they walked into the room.

"Good girl," Dean said again when Alexa started to undress, as ordered. Keeping an eye on her, he walked over to his case and opened up one of the side pockets. When he had done his packing, he had stuffed several ties in there, just in case this kind of situation arose. Now, he was glad of his foresight.

By the time Dean had selected two black ties, Alexa had stripped down to her underwear and was now standing there facing him.

"Off," he ordered, meaning her bra and thong. "I want you completely naked apart from that gag."

"Mmmm," she pleaded into the plaster, giving him the puppy dog eyes that often worked in other situations.

Dean knew that it was all part of the game, and that she wanted to be stripped naked and bound just as badly as he wanted it. "Off," he demanded again, stepping up to her. "And turn around, the way you were before."

Alexa had hoped that by defying him he would take over, but it wasn't to be. Next time, she told herself as she pulled down her thong, leaving it lying on the floor.

"Beautiful, Little Miss Bliss," Dean said, his tone thick with desire. "Now the bra. And turn around first."

Turning back to face the mirror, Alexa took off the bra and dropped that to the floor also. Looking at her naked body in the mirror, with Dean standing right behind her made her blush slightly.

"Look how beautiful you are, darlin'," Dean whispered. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he kissed her lightly on the side of the neck, feeling her shiver in delight at his touch. His warm breath had her hairs standing on end.

"How's the gag? Okay?" he asked, joining her in looking at it in the mirror.

Somewhat surprisingly, it actually was. Alexa was in no discomfort at all. Unless she tried to speak or move her lips, it was almost possible to forget she was gagged. It was a lot better than having a thick, rolled up piece of silk stuffed in her mouth, that was for sure. "Cmmmt tmmk," she mumbled.

"I know you can't talk, that's the point. And you won't be able to move, either, in a minute. Hands behind your back," Dean instructed.

Complying, Alexa felt her heart pounding as Dean tied her wrists securely together. As little as a few weeks ago, she would never have thought she would enjoy this. But now that she and Dean had stumbled into trying bondage and found that they both enjoyed it, she couldn't believe she had gone so long without trying it before. She let out a squeak of protest when he pulled the knot in the tie tight, after wrapping it around and between her wrists.

Ignoring her, he said, "Try and move your hands."

He meant wrists, of course. Attempting to separate them was impossible. They barely moved at all. Inexperienced though he was, Dean was good at binding her securely.

"Good," was his verdict. Then he bent down to work on her ankles, binding them in the same manner as her wrists.

Alexa had expected him to have her get onto the bed before he finished tying her up. It was good that he wasn't being predictable, though. She didn't want this experience to be the same as the last time. Without being told, she tried to move her ankles against the tie. Unsurprisingly, she was barely able to move.

The fact that she was compliant as well as restrained and silenced was already pushing Dean over the edge. He wanted to fuck her so badly, but he knew he had to wait, to make the experience better for both of them.

Standing back up, he wrapped his arms around her stomach, pulling her tightly against him. "You really know how to please your man, don't you, Goddess?" he asked in between light kisses on the side of her neck.

Alexa knew he had used that word deliberately. In their sexual encounters, she was only the Goddess when she wore the red PVC lingerie. Now that she was powerless to do anything about it, he was going to make like she was in that persona now, wanting to dominate the one who dominated him. For now, she would go with what he wanted, but he would pay for it the next time the Goddess really did come out.

"I'm not a Goddess," she said into her gag.

"Oh yes you are," Dean said firmly, still kissing her, having somehow understood her muffled noises. She supposed they had been predictable. Either way, the sensations being caused by him kissing her neck had her body on fire, desperate for him to give her the thorough fucking that she knew was coming at some point. However, she also knew she would be kept in the bondage and made to wait for a while. It was part of the foreplay. The whole time, she was able to watch what he was doing the mirror, although her eyes kept focusing back on her own sealed lips under the plaster. She liked the sight herself, so she could only imagine how Dean felt about it.

"Right, get on the bed," he ordered a minute later, confident that between gagging and tying her and kissing her neck, he had her nicely turned on already.

Alexa turned slightly and looked up at him, trying to make her facial expression look like a captured Goddess rather than his girlfriend who was desperate for sex. "Wmmt mm ymm gmmma dm?" she asked, delighting in the fact that if anything her mouth seemed to be sealing tighter and tighter by the moment. The sticking plaster really was an effective gag.

"Whatever I want," Dean told her huskily. "And you're not doing as you're told." With that, he scooped her off her feet, and unceremoniously dumped her on the bed, correctly guessing that she wanted him to be a little forceful with her. He was rewarded with a muffled cry of protest and a wide-eyed look as she stared up at him, lying on her side.

Wasting no time, Dean climbed onto the bed so that he was behind her. He cuddled up against her, spooning her. "Like I was saying, I've caught me a Goddess," he said quietly, as if trying to make sure no one else heard.

"Nmmm," she insisted, straining against the ties that were restraining her.

"Yes. Definitely a Goddess. Only a Goddess could have tits like these." He began to massage one of her breasts with his hand.

Alexa's heart was racing, her breath coming in shallow pants through her nose as her excitement rose. His touch always found the perfect balance between tender and aggressive. She was soon moaning into the plaster as his hand worked her breasts and nipples.

The gagged noises she was making as he alternated between her breasts had him rock hard. Why exactly they drove him crazy, he wasn't sure, but he was in no mood to question it.

"Mmmmmmm," Alexa cried out, feeling his hard cock pressing against her ass. She wanted it inside her so badly.

Even with her ankles bound, Dean was able to shift his hand from her breasts to between her legs. He found her very wet for him.

"Mmmm! Mmmm!" she moaned, encouraging him to finger her; anything to give her an orgasm.

Gently, Dean slipped a finger into her, touching her clit with his thumb, teasing her.

"Plmmmph," she begged, turning her head to look at him.

All she got was his other hand pressing the plaster down over her lips, not that it had any danger of coming loose. "For someone who's gagged, you make a lot of noise, Goddess."

Alexa was done with the Goddess stuff. "Mmmm," she groaned, encouraging him to work faster with his finger and thumb.

"Since you asked so nicely," he said, quickening the pace of his movements with finger and thumb.

If being bound hadn't taken her body out of her control, what he was doing to her now most certainly did. She was writhing against her bonds and grunting loudly into the plaster without consciously doing any of it.

Dean could tell all to well how wild he was driving her. His own heart was pounding along with hers. "That's it, Goddess," he encouraged. "Come for Dean, Goddess."

"Mmmpph. Mmmmmppppphhhhh!" she cried out as she reached her peak, struggling with her ankles against their restraint and straining her head back to fight the gag.

"Fucking hell," Dean breathed as he removed his hand from between her legs, fingers covered in her fluid. He had never enjoyed getting a girl off anything like as much as that before.

Alexa had rolled onto her back and just lay there looking up at him, trying to get her breath back. Her naked body had a sheen of sweat on it in the warm hotel room.

It wasn't over yet. Dean needed his own release, and Alexa had made it more than obvious how much she wanted him to fuck her.

"Enjoy that, Goddess?" he enquired.

"Mmm," she mumbled, still getting her breath.

"Well now it's time for me to fuck you." The way her eyes lit up was all the reaction he needed. He set about untying her ankles so that he could get down to business.

Alexa could hardly contain herself as she flexed her newly-freed legs. If she had ever wanted to be fucked more than she did right now, she couldn't remember it. Within moments, Dean was slipping inside her, making her gasp with pleasure into her gag.

As he began thrusting into her, Dean kept his eyes locked with her, revelling in the fact that she had been incapacitated, dominated and was now being fucked hard. It was such a rush, part of him wondered if his heart would handle it. If he had cared in the least, he would have been disappointed by how quickly he shot his load into her. There was just nothing he could have done to hold it back.

Feeling him explode into her had Alexa moaning loudly again, craving her own peak once more. Trapped underneath her, her bound hands grabbed onto the bed cover tightly.

"Go on, darlin'," Dean encouraged breathlessly, pounding her as hard as he could.

With a loud squeal, Alexa came for the second time, crying out in pleasure over the course of several thrusts.

It was over. Chest heaving, Dean pulled out of her and flopped down onto the bed next to her.

"Mmph," Alexa said quietly after a moment, wondering if he was okay.

Incorrectly, Dean assumed it was a request to take the gag off. He rolled over onto his side and carefully peeled up one end of the sticky plaster. "Damn," he muttered when he saw how reluctant the adhesive was to release her skin from its grip. He hoped pulling it off wasn't as painful as it looked. Even her lips, when he got that far, stretched out with the plaster before they eventually came loose. "Sorry, darlin'. Does that hurt?"

Once her mouth was uncovered, Alexa gasped in a few breaths, then said, "No. It's really sticky, but it didn't pull my skin off. We found the perfect thing to use."

Dean finished peeling the plaster off her cheek, rolled it into a ball and threw it onto the floor. "I bet you're glad to have it off, though?"

Alexa grinned at him. "No. I wish you had left it on all night."

The best part for Dean was that he could tell she was serious. He gave her a delicate kiss on the lips. "Where did I find you from?"


	36. Chapter 36

Alexa's ringtone took her by surprise. She realised as she sat up on her sun lounger that she must have been drifting off to sleep. That was no great surprise; a day lying in the sun drinking cocktails would do that.

"It's yours," Dean said through a yawn.

He hadn't been far from sleep either, she realised. Time to rest was not a common thing at all in their line of work, so it was good that they were making the most of it. "Yeah," she replied, picking her phone up from the towel that they had put on the sand between their sun loungers. "It's Lucy," she added when she saw the name on the screen. She also saw that it was a video call.

"Hey," she said when she answered the call and saw Lucy's face on the screen. She could tell that her friend was sitting in her living room.

"Lexi, hey. How are you? You look very warm!"

"It's beautiful here, LT," Alexa enthused. "Here, have a look." She turned her phone around to show the picturesque view of beach and ocean.

"Stunning," Lucy said when Alexa appeared on the screen again. "I don't think I've ever seen water that blue before. Not in person, anyway."

"Neither had I, until we came here."

Alexa heard Seth's voice in the background. "Tell her we saw that picture she put in the group chat. They looked like a pair of idiots."

Lucy chuckled at her man, then spoke to Alexa. "Seth says we saw that picture of you in your snorkelling gear yesterday, and he says..."

"I heard what he said," Alexa assured her. "And we know we looked like idiots, but we don't care. It was a lot of fun! There were all kinds of fish in so many different colours. It was a great experience. You should try it one day."

"Maybe I will."

Before her friend could move the conversation forward, Alexa decided to get down to something more important than looking at fish. "So, how are you guys? How's Clem? It must be really hard for you all right now."

"Yeah, it is," Lucy said frankly. "It's only been twenty four hours, so it's still kind of not fully hit us, if you know what I mean? There's been a lot of upset and crying from Clem, as I'm sure you can imagine. Honestly, we've felt like we're not doing enough for her."

"Lucy, don't ever think that. I know Clem won't think it. Apart from everything else, you gave her a home when no one else could. For that, she will always be grateful. Where is she now, anyway?"

"Upstairs. I guess it's because she's young, but she seems to be going through periods of being upset, being withdrawn and depressed, then she goes back to having fun like any other kid. Right now, she's upstairs in her room with one of her friends. By the sound of it, they're having a great time. It's really good to hear. I feel like I don't know what to expect, or what to do. I'm not a parent, Lexi, and I've been thrown in right at the deep end."

Alexa was willing to concede only the final point. "You have been thrown in at the deep end, but you are a parent. I've seen you with Clem. You might not feel like it, but trust me, you're amazing with her. Seth is, too. I'm sure your nanny will also do a great job, judging by what you've told me about her. Basically, what I'm saying is, yes, there will tough times ahead. How could there not be, when the poor thing has just lost both her mom and dad? But you'll get through it together, and you'll be a happy family. I don't doubt that for a minute, and neither should you."

"Thank you, that's so kind," Lucy said quietly, clearly feeling emotional.

"Hey, I asked Dean about you guys coming out to stay with us next time we're off work," Alexa said quickly, wanting to move the conversation on before it got awkward. "He's up for it, if you guys are?"

"We are. Definitely. It'll be a good time. Clem will love it; getting to spend time with her favourite wrestler, and Dean," Lucy added with a chuckle. "Speaking of Dean, is he there with you? Seth wants to talk to him."

Alexa looked over at her man, lying back on his sun lounger. She couldn't tell if he was awake, with his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses. "Dean? Want to speak to Seth?"

"Nope. What would I do that for?" he mumbled sarcastically.

Giggling, Alexa turned her attention back to Lucy. "I'll put him on now. I guess you're not going to be at Raw next week?"

"No. We'll be staying here with Clem."

"Okay, well I'll call you when we're back in the States?" Alexa suggested.

"Yeah, please do. Bye, Lexi."

"Bye," Alexa said with smile, then passed the phone over to Dean as Lucy handed hers to Seth.

"What's up, bro?" Dean asked his friend.

"Hey, Dean. Glad to hear you guys are having a nice time."

"Yep. At this rate, I might end up staying here for good."

"I'll sign up for that," Seth said, laughing. "Maybe we can have them revoke your passport or something?"

"You wish," Dean said dryly, before getting more serious. Although it might not have looked like it, he had been listening in to Alexa and Lucy's conversation. "I'm glad Clementine's doing okay, relatively speaking. Can't imagine what the poor kid is going through."

"Thanks, man. We're doing our best to just be there for her. I figure there's not much else we can do apart from that, even if it doesn't feel like enough when she's crying. It feels so bad when she's like that. This might sound weird, but it already kind of feels like she's our daughter. Does that make any sense?"

"Absolutely," Dean nodded. "And it doesn't _seem_ like she's your daughter. Now that her mom died, she _is_ your daughter, at least as I understood it from how you explained things."

"No, you're right. Legally, when her mom died, we took custody of Clem. It's just a lot of adjusting for us all to do, that's what I'm saying."

"I can't even imagine," Dean said honestly. "If there's anything me or Alexa can do, all you have to do is ask us."

"Thanks. That means a lot," Seth said as it occurred to him that his family were not the only ones who had problems. Dean and Alexa seemed remarkably chilled out, given what had happened. "It sucks that those pictures of you guys got out," he ventured.

"What pictures?" Dean asked.

Immediately Seth realised the reason they didn't seem bothered about the fact that their relationship was the hot topic among wrestling fans online, thanks to several pictures of them kissing leaking out. They didn't even know about it. Obviously they hadn't been online for a while. "Oh, shit. I assumed you would know already. Someone got some pictures of you guys kissing, and they're all over the internet with headlines like, 'Dean Ambrose and Alexa Bliss relationship confirmed.' Then most of them go on to bring up the Renee stuff again, thanks to that stupid podcast of hers."

"For fuck's sake!" Dean exploded, sitting up on his sun lounger. It took a lot of willpower not to kick his beer glass down the beach, since it was the closest thing at hand. "Can't you ever get any fucking privacy?"

"What's up?" Alexa asked with concern, sitting up herself. She had been drifting off towards sleep again, not listening to the conversation. His outburst had quickly changed that.

"Someone took pictures of us kissing. Fuck knows when or how, but Seth's saying they're all over the internet and everyone's talking about us, bringing up that shit with Renee again."

"Oh, no," Alexa groaned. Having candid pictures put out online was bad enough. When they intruded on her vacation, it was even worse. Yet worse still was when the pictures were used to stir up people who knew nothing about the actual situation to start calling her a slut again. Just when she had thought it was all behind them, this would kick it off all over again. Dean had some really crazy fangirls online, too. She felt like they were now bound to start bombarding her will all kinds of abuse for being with 'their' man. In that one respect, Alexa could sympathise with Renee for some of the stuff she had been forced to endure in the past. That sympathy only went so far, though. After all, Renee was the reason the reaction had been as bad as it had a few weeks ago.

Seth's voice made them both focus back on the phone. "You're by the beach in the pictures, sitting on a wall or something."

Dean and Alexa looked at each other, both making the connection at the same time. "Yesterday," he said.

"We were kissing in the street," she added, realising it hadn't been the smartest thing for them to have done, given the potential for something like this to happen if they happened to be recognised.

"Uh, guys, I'm going to leave you to it," Seth said. "I'm sorry to break the news like that and ruin your day, but I really thought you would know already."

"It's not your fault," Dean assured him. "Talk to you soon." With that, he ended the call and passed Alexa's phone back to her.

"Might as well see how bad it is," she said with a sigh. She opened up Twitter and searched her own name. Sure enough, the item at the top of the list was an article about her and Dean being together, with one of the pictures of them as the image. What really concerned her were the comments.

"What are they saying?" Dean asked, looking over her shoulder as she scrolled down to find out.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, pleasantly surprised. Rather than abusive, all of the top comments – those with the most likes from other users – were supportive, actively slamming the site that had written the article, rather than Dean and Alexa. Other people had commented their well-wishes, saying that they hoped the new couple were happy together.

"That's not what I expected," Dean said, giving her a smile.

"Me either." Scrolling further down, she did find some negativity and abuse directed her way, but not many people had liked it, and others had leapt to defend her against the abusive users. It was actually very heart-warming to see so many people taking her side. Whether it was because both she and Dean were among the most popular face characters in WWE, or because people actually liked them as a couple, she had no idea. Whatever the reason, she certainly wasn't going to question it. Looking up at Dean and meeting his eyes, she felt her own tearing up. "I can't believe they're being so supportive of us. I'm genuinely touched. I don't even know what to say, Dean."

"Don't cry, darlin'. This is good news." Dean leaned forward and kissed her softly on the forehead. It was a gesture so gentle it surprised her that Dean was capable of it. Seemingly, it was a day for pleasant surprises.

"I'm crying because I'm happy," she said, wiping away the one tear that had escaped to run down her cheek. "When Seth first said that pictures of us were out there, I was imagining the worst. I mean, I'm sure there will be idiots sending me abuse. I don't doubt that for a minute. But to know that so many people are happy for us really does mean a lot to me."

If he was honest, Dean really didn't give a shit what random people thought of him or his relationship choices, and he didn't use social media. But that didn't mean that he wasn't sensitive to how his girl felt about it, and he could tell how relieved and happy she was with what they had just seen. "Maybe you should tweet something?" he suggested.

"You mean to thank people for being supportive?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe just put something like, 'Yes, Dean and I are in a relationship. We didn't want to make it public yet, but now that it is, we want to say that we're very happy together.' Something like that."

"It might not be a bad idea," Alexa said thoughtfully. "In fact, it might be best to be honest about everything, including the way we got together. I think a majority of people might respect that. What do you think?"

"I think that's a good idea," Dean nodded. He gave her a peck on the lips before adding, "And it's a brave thing to do. One of the reasons I love you, darlin'."

"I love you too, baby," she said, giving him a peck on the lips in return. With that, she pressed the icon to write a new tweet and read aloud as she typed. "Dean and I didn't want the news to break this soon, or the way it has, but yes, we are in a relationship. And yes, it started with us sleeping together before he technically ended his relationship with his previous partner. That's something we both regret and feel bad about, but cannot change. Thank you to everyone who has sent kind words. We love you all."

Dean nodded his approval. "I think that's good. Send it."

"Are you sure it's the right thing to do?" she asked, thumb hovering over the Tweet button. "What if Hunter's not happy that I mentioned the cheating?"

"Don't see why he wouldn't be," Dean shrugged. "After all, it's public knowledge already, thanks to Renee. We're acknowledging that we could have handled the situation better. I don't see how we can get grief for that. Besides, Hunter can't exactly stand there and talk down to us about cheating, now can he?"

"Okay then," Alexa said, willing to trust his judgment. She hit the send button. "There we go," she said nervously.

"Let's see what people write back," he said.

Despite the unpleasant situation, Alexa couldn't help grinning at the way he worded that. Any time he talked about anything to do with technology was amusing. He knew nothing about it, and made no attempt to learn. In its own way, it was endearing.

After a minute or so, Alexa refreshed the tweet, so that the first bunch of comments would appear. She read out the top one, which was already accumulating likes from other users. "This must have taken a lot of courage to write. It's sad that people feel the need to publish stuff about your private lives just to get views for their shitty little websites. Ignore them. Be happy. Real fans love you guys and wish you every happiness."

"That's nice," Dean said genuinely.

"Yeah, and most of the other comments are supportive, too. I'm going to retweet some of them." While she did just that, Alexa felt relief washing over her. What could have been a disaster for her had actually proven to be the opposite. The fans, or at least the majority of them, were actually getting behind her, not turning on her. It really did mean more than she could ever express in a tweet.

"So, we're officially a couple," Dean said, picking up his half-full glass of beer, which had been forgotten about since Alexa's phone had rang a few minutes earlier.

Alexa put her phone down on her sun lounger and gave him one of her most dazzling smiles. "We are. I'm so proud of being with you. I know how lucky I am, so I don't want you to ever doubt how I feel."

Returning her smile, Dean raised his glass. "I can drink to that."

"Me too." Alexa picked up her cocktail and clinked the glass against his. "To us. That's what people say, right?"

"To us," Dean repeated, even though it sounded corny. He downed the rest of his beer in one hit.

As she drank through her straw, Alexa found herself determined to ignore any negativity that came her way. There were a lot of positives in her life right now. In fact, she had never been happier. There was no way she would allow Renee Young or a few crazy wrestling fans to change that.


	37. Chapter 37

For Alexa, the vacation in Nassau felt like it had ended almost as soon as it had started. It wasn't surprising that she felt that way, given how much she had enjoyed herself. There were memories of that trip that would last forever. But now it was back to Raw, and back to the grind. She had just been summoned to the ringside area to see Tyson Kidd so that they could discuss the plans for her storyline for that night's show. With Lucy and Seth not in attendance, it would be interesting to see how Vince and Hunter had decided to handle it.

On the way out to ringside, she bumped into Paige, Becky, Emma and unfortunately Renee, who must have been summoned from the heel locker room. "Hey, guys," she said, glad to be able to address them all with a blanket greeting, since she had no desire to be pleasant to Renee.

The feeling was obviously mutual, since the Canadian didn't join the other three when they returned greetings. Instead, she just walked along with a sour expression on her face. That was fine with Alexa. Renee could look as sour as she wanted; it wasn't going to get her down.

"That's an amazing tan you have there," Becky said, looking Alexa up and down in approval.

"Thanks, Bex. Dean and I spent a few days in the Bahamas."

"Yeah, we know. We saw the pictures," Renee muttered.

Paige rolled her eyes, indicating to Alexa that she should ignore the childish comment. "It looks like you had a great time?"

"Sure did," Alexa took pleasure in saying. "Plenty of fun, plenty of sun, amazing food for dinner every night, more cocktails than I can count, and of course, lots of great sex." The last part had been added for Renee's benefit. Take that, bitch, she thought.

"Of course," Emma chuckled. "The best part of any vacation with a hot guy."

"I'm paying for it all now, though," Alexa said. "I'm going to have to kill myself in the gym the next couple of weeks to make up for it."

"You're welcome to train with us if you like, while Lucy isn't around," Becky offered.

"Thanks. I might take you up on that."

By now, they had walked out onto the stage, where a number of crew members were making their final preparations for the show. Tyson Kidd, the man they were coming to see, was on the stage, talking to Titus O'Neil. When he saw them approaching, TJ excused himself from the conversation and walked over to them. "Hey, everyone," he said cheerfully.

Alexa joined in with the greetings. She was happy that TJ had been chosen to be the agent for Twisted Thorne's matches as he was one of the most popular agents in the company. Always in a good mood, he had a lot to offer in terms of motivation as well as his not inconsiderable talent for translating Hunter and Vince's wishes into compelling television.

"Okay, I think we all know why we're here," TJ said. "Lucy Thorne isn't with us tonight, for reasons that you're no doubt aware of. Safe to say all of our thoughts are with Lucy, Seth and Clementine right now."

Alexa joined in again with the positive responses. She was surprised in a way by how much she missed having her tag team partner around. They had only been a team for a few months, but they had formed a strong bond in that time. She knew that bond would outlast the Twisted Thorne team, no matter how long of a shelf life it had. While she was thinking about missing Lucy, TJ had moved on.

"So, with Lucy not here, something was needed creatively to continue the storyline between all of you guys. The decision has been made the no one from The Shield will appear on the show tonight. Even though Roman and Dean are here, they're going to sit this one out. The explanation that will be given is that there was a mix up with their flight, so none of them made it here. In a backstage segment, Renee, you will tell Emma that you called in a favour from someone back at the office to arrange the little mix up, so that you have Alexa here all alone."

It didn't take a genius to figure out the rest of the idea. "And I get my ass handed to me by all four of them?" she guessed. It was a simple plan, but she had to admit it made sense creatively. Lucy could come back the following week, full of rage over what had happened in her absence and determined to get revenge.

"That's pretty much the gist of it," TJ confirmed. "You're booked in a one on one match with Emma. You'll look like you're about to win, but Paige and Becky, you will come down and interfere, causing a DQ. Once that's happened and they've beaten you down, Alexa, Renee, you will come down as well and get a few shots in of your own. It'll end with Paige and Becky getting their table spot again, leaving Alexa lying in the wreckage, to be married out by the medics. Any questions so far?"

No one had any. Alexa thought about voicing her displeasure at having to let Renee get some shots in, but it was a bit late for that. She had already been pretty much pushed into this angle by Hunter a few weeks earlier, so there was no sense in kicking up a fuss about it now. Doing that would any make her look bad, and Renee would undoubtedly delight in that if it happened. With that in mind, Alexa kept her mouth shut.

"Good," TJ said, satisfied that no objections had been raised. "Let's get into some specifics of how it's going to go down."

BREAK

While Alexa was busy attending to her business, Dean had been relaxing in The Shield's locker room with Roman. The two men had enjoyed catching up on their respective weeks off work, before Dean had decided to go and fetch them both a cup of coffee from the catering area. When he was fixing the drinks, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Deano, Deano, Deano. You need to pay more attention to what's going on around you, pal. If you did, there wouldn't be pictures of you and your little bit of fluff all over the internet right now."

Already, Dean was struggling to keep his cool. "Balor," he sighed without giving the Irishman the satisfaction of turning around to look at him. "Does this not get old for you? Sticking your nose in my business, I mean. When are you going to realise neither me nor Alexa give a fuck about you or Renee? We're happy. Shouldn't you guys be more interested in making what you have work, not trying to get under our skins?"

"Wow, that's very mature of you, Dean," Finn patronised theatrically. Stepping forward, he started to fix himself a coffee. "Tell me this: What was going through your head when you fucked Alexa behind Renee's back, then kicked her to the curb? Because I really don't understand it. Ring rats are ten a penny, and you had something much better than that."

Dean couldn't help bristling at that. "Alright, that's the last thing you're going to say about Alexa. You can talk shit to me all you like; I don't care. But if you insult my girl again, I'll knock you the fuck out. We clear?"

"Touched a nerve, obviously," Finn said dryly, enjoying the reaction. "I noticed you didn't answer the question. I mean, look at Renee and look at Alexa. There's no comparison, is there?"

"True. Alexa is much hotter. And if we're getting into question and answer, why don't I take a turn? What were you doing while we were in Nassau, having the time of our lives? Where were you, Finn?"

"In Florida," Finn answered with a hint of defensiveness.

"Oh! Florida!" Dean exclaimed in faux excitement. "Well, fuck me! I've never been to Florida before! Renee really got lucky with you, didn't she? I'm sure you guys are definitely in it for the long haul. Tell me, when you saw the pictures of me and Alexa, did Renee seem jealous to you? Because she probably realised in that moment that she lost a real man and settled for second or third best with a fucking nobody like you."

Finished fixing his drink, Finn looked up at Dean with an arrogant grin on his face. "You see, that's the difference between us, buddy. You're desperate to keep Alexa around, so you pay for ridiculous vacations and shit like that. It's so pathetic. I, on the other hand, do what I want, when I want. If Renee sticks around, great. If she doesn't, she doesn't. I don't really give a fuck one way or the other. She's just sex to me. I like getting to you by saying she's hotter than Alexa, which is true by the way, but if something better came along, I'd kick Renee to the curb tomorrow without thinking twice about it."

"You're a real piece of shit," Dean said in disgust, shaking his head.

"Maybe," Finn shrugged. "But so are you. Look at what you did to her. Alexa dropped her little panties and you couldn't get rid of Renee fast enough. You had been with her for years, man. Years! And you ran off with the first little slut that came on to you."

That insult to Alexa pushed Dean over the edge. He shoved Finn hard in the chest, making him stagger backwards into the table where the coffee and tea making supplies were. As he bumped into the edge of the table, Finn spilt some of his piping hot coffee down the front of his T-shirt.

"Fucking prick!" Finn raged. He slammed the coffee cup down on the table, then pushed Dean just as hard as he had been pushed himself.

"I told you not to talk about Alexa!" Dean yelled at him. "I ought to break your fucking legs!"

Before any serious fighting could start, the other wrestlers who had been enjoying meals were over there to split them up, telling them to leave it and that they needed to calm down.

Dean allowed Samoa Joe to half lead, half drag him across the room, knowing that the big guy was doing it for the best of reasons. "Alright, let me go," he said once they were on the opposite side of the room, trying his best to regain his composure.

Tentatively, Joe did as he had been asked, ready to grab hold of Dean again if he tried to get back across the room towards Finn. "Dean, you need to leave that fucking idiot alone. Everyone knows what he's like, trying to stir shit up and play people for reactions all the time. The only reason he keeps coming back at you is that you react to him. That's exactly what he wants."

"He can say what he wants about me, Joe. I went off because he was saying shit about Alexa. He called her a slut, for fuck's sake. He's lucky I didn't glass him, let alone pushing him."

"And then you'd get fired, and probably end up in jail," Joe pointed out. "Who would be happy then? You? No. Finn? Yes. He would have gotten exactly what he wants. You seriously just need to ignore the guy, whether he talks about you, Alexa, or anyone else. His opinion means nothing to you, so just blank him. I know it's not easy when he mouths off about your girl, but…"

"I hear you," Dean said, taking a deep breath and sitting down at the closest table.

Joe sat down opposite him and said, "You should go to Hunter about it."

"We've already both had the riot act about all this before. Hunter said if it carried on, someone was going to lose their job over it. Apparently the dumb Irish fuck cares about that less than pushing my buttons."

"Just another reason to walk away next time he opens his mouth," Joe said pragmatically.

"I know you're right. It's just not that easy in the heat of the moment, when he starts abusing Alexa. There's going to come a time where I give him the ass kicking he deserves if this carries on. It's not just me, either. He told me Renee means nothing to him; that she's just sex to him and he would walk away at a moment's notice if he got a better offer. He's a real piece of shit, Joe."

"Well, that's pretty obvious. Let's be honest, you're no angel after what you did to Renee. But Finn was with her straight away, like, the next week or something crazy. The girl was blatantly on the rebound after being with you for so long and being upset at what had happened between you, and he just swooped in there. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if there's some emotional abuse going on there. Renee hasn't been the same girl since she's been with him. Everyone notices that and comments on it. He's in her head, saying fuck knows what about people."

It dawned on Dean that what Joe was saying was definitely possible. Maybe Renee wasn't being nasty to Alexa purely out of anger at what had happened. Maybe she was being pushing into it by Finn. Dean could certainly imagine him putting ideas and negativity in her head. Say this to Alexa next time you see her. Say that to Dean next time you see him. It was definitely the kind of thing that slimy piece of Irish shit would do.

That thought made Dean feel some modicum of sympathy towards Renee. Any real feelings were a long way in the past, and that was where they would remain, but he still didn't want to think about Finn ruining her life. Even the fact that he was blatantly leading her on, making her think that he cared about where he didn't in the slightest, felt bad enough. Renee was a nice girl, and she didn't deserve that.

"You might be right," he said to Joe. "If so, Renee probably needs some help to get away from the piece of shit. I know what it's like when women get with guys like that. They find it impossible to leave, no matter what the guy does to them. That's how women end up getting beaten to death by their partners."

"Whoa, wait a minute," Joe said, raising a hand. "I'm not suggesting Finn is hitting her or anything like that. He'd have to be beyond stupid to do that. We all know WWE is zero tolerance on domestic violence."

"I'm not saying he's hitting her, either," Dean clarified. "I'm saying it's that kind of poisonous relationship that can end up that way. I might not be with Renee now, but I don't have anything against her. I wouldn't want her life ruined by that piece of shit. I might speak to Alexa about it. You never know, maybe she'll be willing to have a chat with Renee and try and get her to see sense when it comes to Finn."

Joe pondered that for a moment. "If Alexa's up for it, and I'd imagine that's quite a big if with everything's that happened between the four of you, it could see them mend some fences. That's assuming Renee sees what we see in Finn. Keep in mind that's far from a guarantee, too."

Dean nodded, noting as he did so that Finn had disappeared from catering and everyone else was returning to their seats. "Thanks, Joe. I'll think on it and speak to Alexa."

"You got it, man. Just don't let me have to pull you off that fucking moron again."

After getting up and giving the big man a clap on the shoulder, Dean walked over to make a second attempt at fixing coffee for himself and Roman. This time, he had a lot on his mind.


	38. Chapter 38

Dean had dwelled on his decision about asking Alexa to speak to Renee about Finn for a few days after his talk with Samoa Joe before Raw. While he did think Renee might be in need of some home truths about the man she was with, there were potential problems to consider. Firstly, how would Alexa react to being asked to try and help out his ex, who also happened to be the woman who had essentially branded her a slut to millions of people? And secondly, even if Alexa did agree to speak to Renee, would she be willing to listen to advice from the woman who had, in her opinion, stolen her man from her after sleeping with him behind her back?

It was a tricky situation to put it mildly, but eventually Dean had decided that the right thing to do was to talk to Alexa about it. If she wasn't willing to talk to Renee, then so be it. He wasn't going to get into an argument with her over it, that was for sure. He had waited until they were back home for the weekend before bringing up the subject.

"Darlin'?" he asked with uncharacteristic hesitancy.

"What's up, baby?" Alexa asked, lifting her head to look at him. They were cuddled up on the couch in their living room, watching a TV show about a police unit that they had gotten into recently.

"There's been something on my mind that I want to talk to you about," he said.

"Actually, me too," she replied, with some nervousness in her voice also. "But you go first."

"Uh, okay," he said, wondering now what she wanted to say and hoping it wasn't something bad. "Remember I told you Monday night that I got into it with Finn again, and the guys had to separate us?"

"Yeah," she said, drawing the word out to make it sound like a question.

"There was a bit more to it than that. After Joe dragged me away, I sat down with him for a couple of minutes. He started by trying to talk some sense into me about not rising to the bait when that Irish prick tries to get a rise out of me."

"I've said that before," Alexa said simply, not trying to rub it in.

"I know you have, and you're right. It's just not that easy when he's in my face talking shit about you."

"I get that," she said. "So what did Joe have to say that you've waited this long to tell me?"

As usual, Dean found himself thinking that she was no dummy. She had read between the lines that there was something coming that she might not like all that much. It was time to go for it. "Well, Finn openly told me that he doesn't give a damn about Renee; that he's only with her for the sex. Just to be perfectly clear, I don't have any feelings at all for her anymore, but still, I think the way he's treating her is wrong and I feel bad for her that she's with that piece of shit when he thinks of her like that."

"Okay," Alexa said, noncommittal as she encouraged him to go on.

"Joe also commented on how she's been acting since she's been with Finn. She's nasty, snippy, and sarcastic all the time, just like Balor is. I get that she has a right to be angry over how I handled the whole thing, but the way she's acting? That's not Renee. I was with her long enough to know that. Joe thinks there might be some emotional abuse going on in their so-called relationship, and that's why she's acting the way she is."

"Possibly," Alexa conceded, determining herself not to react immaturely. She was better than that. Dean was obviously having a hard enough time bringing this up, and she believed him when he said that it wasn't due to any lingering feelings he had for Renee. "I agree with you that she never used to act the way she does now. I get why she would be angry with us over what we did, but it's been months now, and she still makes stupid little comments to me every time I see her."

With a grimace, Dean put his question out there. "So, I was wondering if you might speak to her about it all? Maybe you can get her to see sense and get rid of the guy?"

Being the nice person she was, Alexa wasn't dead set against the idea, but there was one thing she couldn't quite understand. "What makes you think she would listen to me any more than she would you?"

"For a start, I'm not good at talking about that kind of thing anyway. And second, I'm the guy who cheated on her and kicked her to the curb when she was talking about settling down with me. I don't think I'd even get a word in with her."

Alexa wriggled out of his arms so she could look at him better. "Dean, don't take this the wrong way. I'm not against the idea of talking to her, but I think you might be expecting a bit much if you think I'll get through to her. You say you can't do it because you cheated on her and she hates you. That's true. And who did you cheat on her with? Me. So I don't think I'm top of the list of people she wants to be getting relationship advice from."

Dean couldn't argue with that. "You're right," he admitted. "Sorry, darlin'. I shouldn't have brought it up. I just feel bad for her that she's with that asshole when he openly tells people he doesn't care about her. That's not the right way to treat people."

"No, it's not," Alexa said quietly as she tried to imagine herself in that position. She would like to think someone would try and help her if that was the case. "I'll try and talk to her, Dean," she decided. "But I can make no promises that I'll get anywhere, or that she'll listen to me."

"That's all I ask, darlin'. Thank you." Dean leaned forward and gave her a peck on the lips. He thought as he did so that he really was a lucky guy for ending up with a girl with such a kind heart. A lot of women in her position would have been inclined to say that Renee could go hang for all she cared. But Alexa didn't have that kind of animosity in her.

"It's okay," she said pleasantly. "Apart from anything else, maybe I owe her after what we did. I mean, I did know you guys were still together when I started sleeping with you. This might put my conscience at ease as far as that's concerned."

Dean was tempted to say that she didn't have anything to feel bad for, but he stopped himself. After all, they would both have known that it wasn't true. Instead, he turned his attention to what had been on her mind before they got into the subject of Renee. "You said you had something you wanted to talk about, too?"

"Yeah," she said shyly. "It's uh, a lot different from what you wanted to talk about."

Now Dean was even more intrigued. "You can tell me," he encouraged.

"Well, I had a dream last night," Alexa said, feeling her cheeks warming up in embarrassment at what she was about to say to him.

"Okay," he said, now with an idea where this was going. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

"Yes," she said, managing to keep eye contact. "And I want us to do what I dreamt about. That is, if you want to."

"I doubt I'll have a problem," he assured her. "So tell me about it. And you don't need to blush, darlin'. You know you can tell me anything."

"Okay," she said, placing her trust in him not to laugh at her or judge her. "I dreamed that you tied me up on our bed. Actually, you tied me to the bed by my wrists and ankles. You put some of that plaster stuff over my mouth, then you walked out and left me there. I could hardly move at all, and I couldn't talk or cry out."

"And you liked this dream?" Dean wanted to clarify, even though he could tell what the answer would be by the way she had described it, and the fact that she was blushing about it. For his part, the image she had put in his head was most definitely a turn on.

"I did. I liked it a lot. As soon as I woke up, I wanted to try it out. But I didn't know if you would think it was weird or something."

"Not at all. It sounds hot to me, not weird. Actually, I'm glad you've brought up something like this, because it's saved me having to do it."

"Why is that?" she asked, surprised.

"Wait here," he told her as he got off the couch. He walked out of the living room, leaving Alexa nonplussed as to what was going on. All became apparent a moment later when he returned carrying a plastic bag and showed her what was in it. She took out one of the several pieces of white cord-like material.

"What are these?" she enquired.

"They're proper bondage ropes," he said. "I hoped we'd get into doing this kind of thing a bit more often, and I wanted something better to use than a tie. These are specially designed to be effective, yet not uncomfortable. They weren't even expensive. I was lucky I came in the house before you when we got back. I just had enough time to hide the package."

"You're a devious man, Dean Ambrose. But it's sweet that you wanted me to be comfortable," she said with a little smile that warmed his heart.

"Sure did, darlin'. It's about enjoying yourself, not being in pain." As he spoke, he emptied the bag of its contents. In total, he had bought four bondage ropes.

"You can tie me up with them, then," she said, feeling herself getting turned on at the thought. "Do you remember last time, you were calling me Goddess and I was trying to say that I wasn't a Goddess? Well, in my dream, you were acting like I was a Goddess that you had captured, and that was why you tied me up."

This was getting better and better for Dean. "You like being the Goddess, huh?"

"I like the idea of you knowing I'm a Goddess but me pretending not to be. I also want you to just leave me there tied up, like you did in the dream. I want to get used to the feeling of being in that positon. This doesn't all sound stupid to you, does it?"

"Not at all," he said definitively. "I think it's a great idea to add a bit of roleplay. I'm definitely up for it. Would you like to do it now?"

"Yes," Alexa breathed.

Dean gave her a peck on the lips again and said, "Then we will. There's only one thing that worries me a bit."

"What's that, baby?" Alexa asked earnestly. She had no intention of asking him to do something he wasn't comfortable with.

"Do you really want me to tie you up, gag you and leave you there? Because I worry that something might happen and I wouldn't be there to free you right away."

"I'll be fine," she promised. "The only thing that could really go wrong is if I couldn't breathe through my nose, but that won't be a problem. My nose is totally clear today. I'll be fine, baby," she repeated, taking his hand.

"If you're sure, then we'll do it," he said. "Describe your dream to me in more detail, then we'll figure out how we can bring it to life."

BREAK

Alexa was dropped on to the bed, naked. Before she could try and get up or crawl away, Dean climbed onto the bed and sat on her lower back, straddling her, keeping her in place with his weight. As he did so, he had dropped four bondage ropes onto the bed beside her.

"What are you doing?" she asked in panic.

"Making sure you don't go anywhere," came the reply. Dean grabbed hold of both of her wrists, holding them together in one of his large hands while he used one of the ropes to bind them together.

"You don't have to tie me up," she pleaded.

"Sure I do. You think I'm going to catch a Goddess and risk letting her go? There are people willing to pay a lot of money for a genuine Goddess."

"But I'm not a Goddess," she protested.

"Do you really think I'm stupid? I know exactly what you are." Dean tied a second roped to the first, securing a knot on the bottom side where she would not be able to access it. Stretching her arms out, he tied the other end of the rope to one of the bed frame's metal bar. Her wrists were now bound and attached to the bed, so that she wouldn't be able move her arms or hands at all.

"But I'm not a Goddess. You've got the wrong person!" she objected as she watched him work. Both the feeling of being bound and the fact that she could watch him doing it were driving her wild already.

Uninterested, Dean turned around, still sitting on her back, but now facing her feet. The third length of rope was used to bind her ankles together. More protests came his way, but he showed no sign of listening to them as he tied the fourth rope to the third, in between her ankles, then tied it off to one of the bars at the bottom of the bed. Luckily, with her being only five feet tall, she happened to fit perfectly in the position he now had her in: arms and legs outstretched, bound, and secured to the bed. She would be going nowhere until he chose to untie her.

Feeling him secure the final knot, Alexa wriggling against her bonds to test how effective they were. To her immense pleasure, she was barely able to move at all, just the way she had been in her dream. Dean had made a very good job of making sure the ropes were tight enough to stop her moving or getting free, but not tight enough to cut into her skin or cut off circulation.

"You okay?" he asked as he got off the bed, breaking character for a moment. He figured doing that was a lot better than risking leaving her in pain.

"Yes, baby. I can't move, but it doesn't hurt."

"Good girl," Dean said. He leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. Then he got back into character. "Right, Goddess. Now that I'm sure you're not going anywhere, I have a phone call to make."

"A phone call?" she asked nervously. "A call to who?"

"Ah, how could I forget?" Dean asked, chastising himself. He picked up a roll of sticking plaster that was conveniently placed on the nightstand next to the bed.

"Wait. What are you doing?" Alexa asked, also back in character, head raised to look at him.

Dean stretched a long length of plaster out from the roll and ripped it off. "Keeping you quiet, that's what I'm doing."

"No! Don't!" she pleaded, but it was to no avail. He pressed the plaster down across her mouth, then smoothed the ends onto her cheeks. The strip he had used was long enough to stretch almost from ear to ear.

"Mmppph!" she protested, her eyes wide as he placed his hand over her mouth, forcing the plaster tighter against her lips so that it formed a better seal.

Standing back to admire his handiwork a moment later, Dean nodded in satisfaction. As always, he found himself thinking how amazing her ass was. He was definitely an ass man, and hers was the best he had ever seen. Then there was the fact she was comprehensively bound and gagged, with the skin coloured plaster contoured perfectly to the shape of her mouth underneath it. All told, it was a truly beautiful sight. "That's better," was his verdict.

"Mmmmm," she moaned, looking helplessly up at him.

"Save the effort," he told her coldly. "You're going nowhere until my contact shows up to collect you. Goddesses like you fetch high prices if you know the right people, and luckily for me, I do."

While Dean took out his phone and pretended to call his mystery contact, all part of the roleplay, Alexa lay her head down on the bed, facing him. Her dream, or maybe fantasy was a better description, was coming true. She could barely move, and now with the plaster over her mouth, there was no way she would be able to cry out anything like loudly enough to get help from anyone outside the house. The flexible nature of the material used for the gag actually worked against any attempt she might make to get free of it. By its very nature, it was constantly pulling itself tight against her cheeks.

"Yeah, she's not going anywhere, trust me," Dean was saying on his end of the pretend phone call. "Well, come over and check her out for yourself. I'm telling you, she's a legit Goddess, and she's yours for the right price."

Trying to put herself in the mind-set of a captured Goddess who was facing the prospect of being sold off to someone like nothing more than a piece of meat, she yelled angrily into the plaster and strained against the ropes binding her wrists in a pathetic attempt to get free.

"You hear that?" Dean said. "I don't think the Goddess likes being captured. You'd better get over here as quick as you can." He paused, as if the person on the other end of the call was speaking, then said, "An hour? Okay." With that, he ended his 'call' and grinned at Alexa. "You hear that? My man will be here in an hour to inspect the goods. I know he'll like what he sees. Until then, you stay nice a quiet."

"Mmmmppphhhh," she groaned, pleading with him with her eyes.

Somehow, Dean managed to make himself walk out of the room and close the door. Although every fibre of his being wanted to be in there fucking her, she had asked to be left alone to experience the bondage before things went that far. He had instructed her to shout as loudly as she could if she wanted to stop the game, knowing that he would hear her from the living room and could quickly rush in there and let her go. She had assured him that wouldn't happen, though, which left him to somehow wait an hour before he went back into the room. It would be the most frustrating sixty minutes of his life.

Back in the room, Alexa was left with nothing to focus on other than her bondage; exactly how she had wanted it to be. Breathing heavily through her nose, she lifted her head slightly so that she could study Dean's rope work. Her wrists were secured with a knot that was on the bottom side of the rope, meaning that even if she could somehow get her mouth free and reach the rope with her teeth, she couldn't work her wrists loose. Even that was an irrelevance, she realised as she strained against the bonds. With her legs secured to the bottom of the bed, she couldn't even stretch far enough to reach her wrists. Her position was totally impossible to escape from. That fact made it so much more of a turn on. Only Dean could free her, and he would only do so at his discretion.

Then there was the gag. She moaned into it again, enjoying its effectiveness in keeping her quiet and making any attempt to speak totally incomprehensible. When she had picked out the sticking plaster in the pharmacy in Nassau she had told Dean it would make an effective gag because she knew it would turn him on to hear her say it. Little had she known, that same fact would end up driving her even crazier than him.

But could she get the plaster off her mouth? Although she wanted to be in the position she was now in, part of the enjoyment was to struggle against it and attempt to get free. She already knew that moving her lips was impossible, since they were essentially glued shut by the incredibly strong adhesive. The only way she could imagine being able to remove it would be if she could get one of the ends to come loose from her cheek.

Unfortunately, she soon found as she rubbed her cheek against the bed cover she was lying on, Dean had used too long a length of plaster for this method to work, either. It stretched almost to her ear, making it impossible for her to rub the end against the cover. Any hope of prying it free that way vanished as quickly as it had arrived.

For the next twenty minutes, Alexa lay there, using her very limited range of movement to struggle against her restraints and moaning quietly in a mixture of pleasure and frustration into her gag.

Suddenly, to her surprise, she heard her phone ringing. She had forgotten it was in the room. Lifting her head, she saw in lying on top of the clothes she had been wearing, which were now piled up untidily on the floor a couple of feet away. Lucy Thorne's name was on the screen.

Although there was no way she could hope to get to the phone, it added a new element to the roleplay for Alexa. If this was all real, she would be desperate to get to the phone before it stopped ringing. With renewed energy, she strained against her bonds, growling loudly into the plaster with the effort. It was no use. Dean had simply tied her too effectively.

What a story to tell Lucy, she thought, wanting to laugh. 'Sorry I missed your call, I was bound and gagged at the time.' It was tempting to actually say that, just to see what her friend's reaction would be.

After an hour that had seemed to last five times that long, Dean made his way back to the bedroom. He had put a jacket on, to signify his change in character from before. How he had managed to go for some long when he was so horny and fired, he really wasn't sure. But now, it was time for him to have his fun. He knew that the amount of time she had spent bound would have turned Alexa on so that she was ready for him, so there would be no need to waste time on foreplay. All he had to do was stick to the roleplay.

"Mmmpphhhhhhh!" Alexa squealed loudly when the door opened, lifting her head to look at whoever was walking in, in the vain hope that rescue had arrived.

Dean was happy first of all to see that she was okay, and secondly to discover that she was in exactly the same predicament that he had left her in. It was the best case scenario for both of them. Delighted though he was, he had a character to play.

"He actually wasn't bullshitting," he said in surprise, studying Alexa carefully. "You really are a Goddess, aren't you?"

"Nmmm," she insisted emphatically, before trying to say that she wasn't a Goddess, it was mistaken identity. None of it seemed to impress the mystery man standing in front of her.

"I don't care what you're trying to say. I know a Goddess when I see one. If the pink in your hair wasn't enough of a giveaway, it's more than obvious by how beautiful you are. I mean, look at that ass. That could only be the ass of a Goddess."

"I'm not a Goddess!" Alexa insisted even more strongly, not that the words were decipherable.

"And for the absolute proof, I know exactly where to look," Dean went on, proud to have thought of this idea while he had been out of the room. He stepped forward and turned Alexa over so that she was almost lying on her side. Meeting her wide eyed gaze, he pointed to her belly button, with its silver piercing. "You think I don't know only Goddesses have those?"

Alexa loved how he had made that up. Thinking quickly, she went along with it. "Nmmppph," she cried, looking defeated as he let her drop back down on her front.

"Yes," Dean said, satisfied with his discovery. "My own Goddess to do whatever I want with. I'll definitely be buying you. But why wait, when you're lying there right now?"

Watching him, Alexa saw him unfasten and remove his belt, then start unbuttoning his jeans. Feeling herself burning up, she knew that he was going to get right into fucking her. That was more than fine with her; she had been turned on like mad for the past hour. Even so, she started making muffled protests into the plaster and struggling against the ropes, acting as if she didn't want him to touch her.

Dean was already rock hard as he leaned over to untie the rope that was securing her legs to the frame at the bottom of the bed. Then he repeated the process on the rope around her ankles. "Don't bother trying to kick me," he warned her.

Alexa had no intention of doing that. She couldn't stay in character anymore; all she could think about was how badly she wanted him inside her. With her legs untied, she was able to help him out by getting her body in positon for him to take her from behind.

Wasting no time, Dean placed a hand on either side of her waist to keep her in the ideal positon and slipped into her wet entrance. "Oh, Goddess," he sighed, deep in pleasure as he began his thrusts, starting slowly at first, working his way up until he was really pounding her.

Panting loudly into her gag as he fucked her, Alexa couldn't remember ever enjoying sex this much before. The hour she had been made to wait for it probably played into that. Whatever the reason, it didn't take all that long before she felt herself approaching orgasm.

"Let yourself go, darlin'," Dean encouraged, feeling her quivering under him and seeing her clenching her hands tightly; something he had noticed she always did before she came.

"Mppppphh! Mmmmmpphhh!" she screamed as she climaxed, struggling to get enough air in through her nose.

"Fuck, babe, you're incredible," Dean gasped, pounding her even harder, craving his own release.

"Cmmm, bmmby. Cmmmm," she gasped.

It was all the encouragement he needed. With a loud grunt of pleasure, he allowed himself to unload into her over the course of several thrusts.

"Fucking hell," he sighed when it was over, gently pulling out of her and lowering her down onto the bed. How heavily she was breathing troubled him, so he quickly crawled down the bed and set about pulling the plaster off her mouth. It proved to be no easy task after it had been stuck down for so long.

"Oh, Dean," she gasped once she was able to.

"I hope that lived up to expectations?" he asked, lying down beside her. He was actually a little nervous about the answer, which surprised him. It had been a night of surprises.

"Lived up to them? It was amazing. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I never expected to be into that kind of thing, but I can't tell you how much I love it when you tie me up, baby."

Her wrists were still bound together and secured to the bed. Dean looked at them and asked, "It doesn't hurt, then?"

"No. Lying in the same positon got uncomfortable after a while, but the ropes don't hurt. You're very good with them," she added, looking at him adoringly.

"And having your mouth covered for that long?" he asked.

"Made it even better," she said, as if finishing his sentence for him. "I could literally spend all night with my mouth taped up with that stuff and I'd still enjoy it."

Dean wasn't sure if she meant that, or if she was toying with him. Either way, it was a delightful idea. "Maybe next time, darlin'," he said with a grin. He gave her a peck on the lips, finding them actually sticky from the adhesive that had been sealing them up. He could see a few little marks from it on her cheeks, too. "I think you need to wash your face," he suggested gently.

"I think I need a shower," she countered. "If you're nice enough to untie me, maybe you can join me."

That was another delightful idea. "Deal," Dean said, getting to work on the ropes securing her wrists.

"Lucy called me while I was tied up," Alexa said with a little giggle while he worked. "I imagined myself telling her the truth about why I didn't answer her call."

Dean laughed. "Do it, I dare you."


	39. Chapter 39

Alexa had come to the realisation that Lucy Thorne was not just her tag team partner at this point. She wasn't just a travelling partner, either. No, by now, Alexa felt like they were becoming close friends. Maybe even best friends, if that concept wasn't too childish.

During the two weeks since they had last seen each other, they had spoken most days, either by text or video call. Now, backstage before Raw, they would soon be reunited when Lucy arrived for her first show in a fortnight.

Lucy wasn't coming alone, either. Considering the fragile state poor little Clementine had been in since her mother had died, Seth and Lucy had made the decision that she would come to Raw with them, and they would all head back home together the following day.

For her part, Alexa was looking forward to seeing Clementine. She hoped that as she was the young girl's favourite wrestler, she would be able to give her something to smile about. While she was thinking about it, the locker room door opened and Lucy walked in with her case, but no Clem.

"Lucy!" Alexa said happily, getting up and walking quickly over to her friend.

"Hey, Lexi," Lucy said with a smile. She offered a hug that was gladly accepted.

Bayley and Sasha were the only other people in the babyface women's locker room as yet. They both offered greetings of their own. The relationship between Lucy and Sasha still was not exactly positive, but that paled into insignificance on this occasion. Everyone knew why Seth and Lucy had been granted time off work, and Clem's story had pulled on everyone's heart strings.

"I missed you," Alexa said openly as she stood with her arms around Lucy, resting her head on her shoulder as they hugged. The eight inch height difference made such gestures awkward for them, but they were used to it by now.

"I missed you, too," Lucy replied quietly, making sure Sasha or Bayley didn't hear. For some reason, she felt awkward about the prospect of colleagues hearing her talk that way.

They pulled apart and Alexa looked up at her. "How are you guys?"

Bayley approached, with a question of her own. "Hey, Lucy. I was very sorry to hear about Clementine's mom passing. How is she, the poor thing?"

"Thanks, Bay," Lucy smiled warmly. At times, Bayley could be too chirpy and energetic for her taste, but there could be no doubt at all that her heart was in the right place. "Clem's doing okay, relatively speaking. She's young, so there are ups and downs, you know? Like today, for example. She couldn't wait to get here. It's all she's talked about all day."

"Bless her," Bayley said with real feeling. "Will she be coming in to see us?"

"I hope so," Alexa said.

"She will," Lucy promised them. "Right now she's gone with Seth to see Uncle Roman and Uncle Dean." With that, Lucy made her way over to a locker next to where Alexa's things were.

On the way past, Sasha had something to say. "Sorry to hear about what's been going on, Lucy."

"Thanks," Lucy said simply, nodding to acknowledge the sentiment.

Charlotte Flair and Mickie James walked into the room with their cases. After greetings were exchanged all round and more kind words were sent Lucy and Clementine's way, Twisted Thorne had the chance to sit down and talk with some semblance of privacy, since the others were now talking among themselves.

By then, Alexa had sensed that her friend was putting up a bit of a front. It was by no means a strange thing for Lucy to do; it was one of the reasons she was hard to get to know or to get along with. But as her friend, Alexa could tell that things were not going quite as well as she had made out to the others. To further emphasise the point, Lucy let out a deep sigh.

"Talk to me, LT," Alexa encouraged gently. "I can tell you're upset."

Lucy wavered for a moment, making sure that no one else was paying attention. The coast was clear, so she shook her head and reluctantly admitted, "I don't know what the fuck I'm doing, Lexi. I'm not a mom. I don't know the right things to say or do for Clem. I feel so useless." By the end of that sentence, tears were trickling down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey, hey," Alexa said soothingly, grabbing Lucy in another hug and nestling against her in a comforting gesture. Lucy at least put an arm around her shoulders in return. "Don't say that about yourself, girl. I know you're in at the deep end, and that's a huge understatement. Neither you or Seth have been parents before, and now you have a grieving ten year old. It must be so hard. But the thing is, I know you're doing an amazing job between you, no matter what you think."

"How do you know that?" Lucy asked doubtfully.

"Because Clem is here tonight. Because you said she's been happy all day. If she felt lost, uncared for, miserable, whatever, she wouldn't even want to leave her room. Is she having a tough time because of her mom dying? Of course she is. Who wouldn't? But you guys are making it so much better for her than it otherwise would be. You can trust me on that."

With the way they were sitting and hugging, the two women couldn't see each other's faces. Lucy didn't say anything, but Alexa felt herself being squeezed tightly for a moment, while Lucy let out a ragged breath. It was obvious what the words had meant to her. Alexa just sat there holding her friend, knowing that it was helping.

Across the room, Bayley looked over and saw them both and her heart melted. It was such an adorable sight to see them hugging like that; even more so because it wasn't a customary thing for Lucy to do. Bayley took out her phone and snapped a picture of the moment. She wanted to save it for Lucy and Alexa, not necessarily to share it with the public.

When the tender moment passed and they let go of each other, Lucy briefly told Alexa the story of how she and Seth had been out grocery shopping with Clem when she had gotten a panicked call from Maggie, their nanny, saying that Clem's mom had suffered some kind of seizure and was dead. Although she was the one member of the Thorne family who wasn't a medical expert, it hadn't been hard for Lucy to figure out that it had to have been some kind of aneurism or haemorrhage thanks to the brain tumour. It had then fallen to her to tell the poor Clementine that her mom had died.

"I'll never forget the look on her face as I said it," Lucy said, another tear rolling down her cheek. "I remember thinking, 'Hasn't the poor girl been through enough?' Like, she knew her mom was going to die, but she at least thought she'd have the chance to say goodbye."

Fighting back tears of her own, Alexa said, "That's so sad. I really feel for Clem. No kid should have to go through something like that."

"If there's any kind of positive in it," Lucy went on, "It's that she doesn't have to see the end. Watching someone die from cancer is a truly horrid experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone. At least Clem won't have the memory of seeing her mom in that state. She can remember her saying goodbye to us all that morning when we left to go grocery shopping. In the years to come, when she's old enough to understand, she might find herself thankful for that in some ways."

"Maybe," Alexa said quietly, thinking that no matter what kind of spin was put on it, it was still a life-changing experience for a ten year old girl.

At that moment, Bayley approached, looking slightly hesitant. "I hope I'm not intruding, guys?" she asked cautiously.

"No, Bay, you're good," Lucy said, using the interruption as a chance to pull herself together and brighten up. "What's up?"

"I, uh, took a picture of you guys a few minutes ago. I couldn't pass it up, with how sweet you looked together. I thought you might want to see it?"

"Aww, let's have a look," Alexa said, thinking it best if she answered the question. There was no telling if Lucy might have been receptive, or if she would have taken Bayley's head off, despite her obvious good intentions.

As she handed over her phone, with the photo already on the screen, Bayley said, "I didn't take it because I wanted to post it. I took it for you guys. But if you want to post it, that's cool as well."

Alexa took the phone and immediately loved the picture she saw. If there was ever an image to represent the bond that had formed between the two members of Twisted Thorne, this was it. "That's lovely," she said. "Lucy, look." She turned the phone around for her friend to see.

"That is really nice," Lucy agreed. She wasn't particularly happy about having her picture taken while she was upset, but it wasn't really clear in the picture that she had been shedding tears. It looked more like she and Alexa had just been sharing a hug as only best friends could. "You can post it if you want, Bay. Put something about best friends."

"You got it," Bayley said, smiling happily. She took her phone back and uploaded the picture to Instagram, which would automatically also post it to Twitter. She added the caption: I love these two. She followed the caption with two hashtags: Twisted Thorne and Besties. "Done," she told them.

Alexa already had Bayley's page open on her phone, so she could see the same thing that the fans would see. "That's lovely," she repeated. Comments were appearing within seconds, confirming that the fans felt the same way. "I love these two so much. Bestie goals," she read aloud.

Lucy figured that any post that encouraged the fans to like Twisted Thorne was a post worth having. Since she had been with WWE, she had learned just how powerful social media could be. Her failure to utilise it when she had first joined the company had probably contributed to the difficulty she'd had with trying to get over. Before she could comment, her phone rang. Looking at the screen, she saw Seth's name. "Hey," she said pleasantly as she answered.

"Hey, babe. Clem and I are outside the locker room. She wanted to come and see Alexa and Bayley, but we just bumped into one of the crew who said Hunter and Stephanie need to see you and Alexa in their office."

"One second, I'll come to the door," she said.

Alexa watched as Lucy walked over and opened the door. She greeted Clementine first, then encouraged her to go into the locker room. She looked so cute in her Twisted Thorne shirt and baseball cap. Wearing a cap seemed to be something she liked. Now that she thought about it, Alexa couldn't remember seeing her without one, apart from at the Wrestlemania after party. She figured she should walk over and greet the young girl, while Lucy spoke to Seth in the locker room doorway. "Hey, Clem!" she said enthusiastically, approaching the child with her arms outstretched, offering a hug.

"Alexa!" Clem said, delighted to see her favourite wrestler. Alexa crouched down and they hugged each other like old friends. "I couldn't wait to see you again," Clem added.

"I couldn't wait to see you again either, sweetheart." They parted, and Alexa reminded herself not to ask any of the usual questions like, 'How have you been?' The answer to that one was obvious, and it wasn't a subject she wanted to get into. Instead, she said, "I love your outfit! Twisted Thorne merch for the win!"

"We dare! We will win!" Clem said, smiling broadly as she copied the team's catchphrase.

"You know it, girl. That's why we're the champs."

"How are you?" Clem asked next with some concern. Alexa wondered what she was talking about for a moment, but then she remembered that Clem didn't know that kayfabe was a thing. Therefore, she thought she had actually been hurt by Paige, Becky, Emma and Renee the previous week. Picking up on the hesitancy, Clementine elaborated on her question. "It looked like they banged you up pretty bad last week."

Alexa had to play along. Lucy and Seth would probably have to dispel the kayfabe myth soon, but that was their job, not hers. "I'm pretty banged up, sweetheart. But you know they're going to have to do a lot more than that to take me out, right?"

"That's why you're the best!" Clem said proudly, although she did pause for a moment to consider Alexa's statement first.

"Thanks, Clem," Alexa said, smiling broadly.

"Hi, Clementine!" Bayley called out, giving her a little wave.

Clem quickly trotted over there to get the hug that she knew would be on offer. She was soon the centre of attention, with everyone in the locker room gathering around to talk to her. While that happened, Lucy re-joined Alexa, both of them looking over at the young girl from a distance.

"She likes being the centre of attention," Lucy chuckled. As she said it, all of the women laughed at something Clem had said.

"She's a natural at it," Alexa agreed with another big smile.

"Well, she'll have to make her audience wait. We've got to go see Steph and Hunter. Presumably it's about how they're going to continue our storyline from where they left off last week."

Alexa looked up at her friend with a quizzical expression. "And you're bringing Clem with us? She doesn't know about kayfabe, does she?"

"She suspects," Lucy revealed. "It's hard to keep it going when you're with her all the time. She ten, not five, and she's mature for her age. That's part of the reason she asks so many questions about things. I think she wants to catch someone out so that her suspicions are confirmed. I just mentioned it to Seth a minute ago, and he said he's okay with the idea of telling her what the deal really is. He's waiting outside for us to do exactly that. You can help out, if you like?"

"Uh, sure," Alexa said, surprised by the offer, but happy to be asked.

Lucy called out, "Clem! Time to go, sweet pea."

Obediently, Clementine trotted right over to them. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"We've got to go see Hunter and Stephanie."

"Oh, cool!" Clem said excitedly. She took Lucy's hand and they headed for the door.

While Alexa was trying not to let on how adorable she found the sight of the two of them together, hand in hand, Lucy said, "Seth is waiting for us outside. There's something we need to talk about before we go and meet with them."

"Am I in trouble?" Clem asked, looking up at her.

Alexa was sure she had never seen anything as cute in her life, but she kept her mouth shut and followed them out of the locker room.

"No, you're not in trouble," Lucy was saying. "What I should have said is, there's something we need to tell you."

"Oh," Clem said thoughtfully, now looking at Seth to see if he was going to enlighten her.

Smiling, Seth gestured to a nearby equipment case. "Hop up on there, Clem."

After she did as she had been asked, Lucy said, "The truth is, sweat pea, there's something we've not been honest with you about. Something to do with how things work around here."

"Oh?" Clem asked, looking between Lucy, Seth and Alexa. "You're going to say it's not real, aren't you?"

Damn, Alexa thought. The girl really was sharp.

"Yeah, we are," Seth admitted, a little surprised himself that she had just come out with it like that. "How did you know we were going to say that?"

"I suspected for a while. I remember being out with my friends once and I had Alexa's shirt on. Some older kid asked me what it was and I told him it was my favourite wrestler's shirt. He told me wrestling was all stupid and fake and I shouldn't watch it. I thought he was lying, but then I got to know you guys and I got to come backstage. I saw you're all friends with each other. And now I can see Alexa isn't hurt. They were saying on WWE dot com only a few days ago that she has been in hospital, yet she doesn't even have any bruises. Worst of all, they said you guys weren't there last week because you missed your flights. That wasn't true. You were home with me, and I bet Roman and Dean were there. None of it makes sense."

Lucy nodded thoughtfully. As often seemed to be the case, Clem was right on point. Her intelligence and maturity were the first things Lucy had like about her when they had first met. Now the problem that remained was how to explain that yes, wrestling was 'fake' – such an awful word to use – in some senses, yet it was still a dangerous job to do. "The truth is, Clem, what we're doing is making a TV show. You know how they make TV shows, right?"

"Of course. They have a script and stuff."

"Exactly," Seth said. "We basically get a script for our shows, too. We got told who we're going to wrestle, and we have lines given to us for the talking segments we do."

"So someone decides who the champions will be?" Clem asked.

"Yeah," Lucy said. "Mr McMahon usually does that. Sometimes Hunter does it, too. They work out who the champions will be and decide who will win the matches each week. Then we have to go out there and put on a show."

"But the moves and stuff are real?" Clem asked, sounding like she at least needed that to cling on to.

"Absolutely," Alexa said, deciding to speak up for the first time. "It takes a lot of training to do what we do, and even then it still hurts. Sometimes it hurts a lot. Do you remember when Lucy was off TV for a long time a couple of years ago?"

"Yeah," Clem said, feeling her cheeks warming up in embarrassment. "Back then, I was glad. I didn't like Lucy until I met her."

All three adults laughed loudly. It was the only possible reaction. When the moment was over, Lucy got serious again. "I was out because I got a bad injury. That can happen to us all. What we do in the ring is designed to be entertainment, but it's still dangerous, and it's still a highly-skilled job."

"Like actors, but actors that throw each other around," Clem said.

"That's not far off," Seth said warmly. "I hope this hasn't changed how you feel about wrestling? We wouldn't want you to stop enjoying it just because you know more about how things work around here."

"Actually, I'm glad," she said.

"Glad?" Seth enquired.

"Yeah. Now I know something really bad isn't going to happen to one of you guys. I couldn't lose anyone else."

Alexa had to step away when she heard that, fearing that she might burst into tears. It was such a heart-breaking thing to hear from a ten year old. She heard Seth say, "Oh, Clem," followed by a loud sniff from Lucy. There were obviously no dry eyes among them. A moment later, she turned back around and saw Seth hugging the little girl, while Lucy was wiping tears from her eyes.

"Nothing's going to happen to us, sweat pea," Lucy said, sounding as choked up as she looked.

Deciding to let them have the some privacy for their family moment, Alexa headed off to Hunter and Stephanie's office. When she got there, she knocked on the door, figuring that it would be less awkward to wait inside than to linger around in the hallway.

"Come in!" Hunter called out.

"Hi, Hunter, Steph," she said when she entered the office, finding both of the bosses waiting there as expected. As was often the case, Stephanie was perched on the edge of her husband's desk, while he stood next to her.

"Hello, Alexa," Hunter said pleasantly. "Lucy not joining us?"

"She'll be along in a minute," Alexa assured him. "She has Seth and Clementine with her, and they're just having a bit of a family moment."

"Oh, how sweet," Stephanie gushed. A cynic might have wondered if she was referring to Lucy more than Clementine, given her tendency to fawn over her chosen one.

"Yeah," Alexa agreed, betraying none of what she was thinking. "They just had a chat about the business and how it works. I think Clem already knew some of it. Lucy told me she's mature for her age, and she wasn't wrong."

"That conversation is always an interesting one to have," Hunter said knowingly.

Alexa could have gone on to repeat the tear-jerking comment Clem had made to Seth and Lucy, but she considered it not to be her business to do so. It had been a private moment, and it should stay that way. In any event, there was a loud knock on the door, signalling Lucy's arrival.

"Come in!" Hunter called out again, more friendly this time, now that he knew Clem might be there.

Sure enough, the child was the first to enter the room. She paused and looked back at Lucy, seemingly searching for a confirmation or maybe encouragement.

"Go on, Clem," Lucy urged, smiling.

With renewed confidence, Clementine approached Hunter and Stephanie. "Hello, Mr and Mrs Helmsley," she said politely.

Alexa looked at Lucy and they exchanged an 'aww' expression.

"Hello, Clementine. It's nice to see you again," Hunter said, returning the politeness in kind.

"We hear you've just been learning about how we put the show together," Stephanie added.

"Yes. You make a TV show, with a script and everything. That's why Alexa's not hurt."

"That's why Alexa's not hurt," Hunter confirmed. "But on the show, she is hurt. That's why we're having this little meeting."

"Is Lucy going to kick their butts?" Clem demanded, referring to Paige, Becky, Emma and Renee – the ones who had destroyed Alexa the previous week.

"She's going to try," Hunter promised.

With that, Lucy stepped forward and the creative discussion began. The idea for that night's show was quite simple. The Shield would show up, with Lucy full of rage towards Renee over the fact that she had arranged for The Shield's flights to be messed up, which had lead to Alexa being taken out four on one.

Renee would be in the ring when The Shield arrived, a fact that Lucy would learn from Charly Caruso. She would then storm out to the ring and start beating the hell out of Renee, only to be quickly interrupted and taken out by Twisted Thorne's other three enemies.

With the plans outlined, Hunter asked Lucy to make sure she spoke to Renee before the show, to make sure she was totally comfortable with what had to happen. It was the first time she would be getting physical in the ring, after all.

After Lucy agreed to that request, Stephanie started talking about how pleased she was with the storyline so far. Alexa was also drawn into that conversation, and the three women were soon babbling away at quite a pace.

Hunter noticed Clementine standing slightly off to one side, waiting patiently for Lucy to finish. He decided to occupy her by taking her to one side for a chat. He figured that hearing the wrestling business laid bare in front of her like that might have been a bit much.

"You okay, Clem?" he asked, gesturing to her to follow him over to the corner of the room, where they might be able to hear themselves think over the three women's voices.

"Yes, thank you," she said with the politeness she seemed to think was required of her in his presence.

"What do you think about what you just heard?" he asked gently.

"It was interesting," Clem said, nodding. "I can think up my own ideas, now I know how you do it."

The answer pleasantly surprised Hunter. She had been deep in thought, not overwhelmed at all. "Ideas for Lucy and Alexa?" he guessed, smiling.

"No. I meant ideas for me. I want to be a wrestler one day."

"Okay, sweetheart," Hunter said kindly.

"I'm serious," Clementine said defiantly, thinking that he had patronised her. "I want to work for you one day, Mr Helmsley. I love wrestling. I love all sports. But I love wrestling the most."

Hunter could see in her eyes that she meant every word. This was no air-headed kid with a pie in the sky idea that was never going to happen. This was a determined person who wanted to make their dream come true. That kind of thing, he could get behind. But it was a long way in the future, even if it did happen. Right now, he knew the best advice to give. "Sorry, Clem. I can see you mean it. I didn't intent to dismiss you. If you really want a chance in this business, there are a couple of things you need to do. You need to keep the thought in your head that you need to do these things if you want to become a wrestler, because I won't be able or willing to offer you a job if you don't."

"Okay. What things?" Clem asked earnestly.

"First, you need to keep yourself healthy and in good shape. You know how Seth and Lucy eat, and how often they train. You need to look after yourself as much as they do."

"I'll speak to Seth about it. He makes our food," Clem said seriously. "And I'll work harder on my exercises."

"Good. And the other thing, which is just as important, is you need to do your best in school every single day, and you need to graduate."

Clementine nodded as she took that in. "Work hard in school so I can become a wrestler. I can do that."

The best part for Hunter was that he didn't even doubt it. Lucy and Seth really had adopted a special girl, and he already knew she would make them very proud parents.


	40. Chapter 40

"Are you really sure that's a good idea?" Lucy asked Alexa. Having left Clementine in the women's locker room with strict instructions not to leave, they were on their way to the catering area, looking for Renee Young. The original intention had been for Lucy to speak to her about their segment on Raw, but Alexa had just revealed that she had promised Dean she would talk to Renee about Finn as they suspected some kind of abuse might be going on.

"You don't think it is?" Alexa asked. She couldn't pretend to be all that surprised; she wasn't particularly convinced herself.

"No, I don't. If I was her, I'd punch you square in the face."

"Yeah, I'm sure you would," Alexa said with a little chuckle. "I know it's not ideal, and I know she might not want to talk to me, but I promised Dean I would try, so that's what I'm going to do."

"Lexi, you're the woman Renee's long-term partner cheated with and left her for," Lucy said, as if she was reminding her of a fact that had somehow been forgotten. "In what world do you think she's going to take relationship advice from you?"

Before Alexa could answer that question, they walked into catering and immediately saw Renee sitting alone at a table. She looked like the most miserable human being on Earth.

"There she is," Lucy said unnecessarily. They both walked over to where she was sitting.

Sensing someone approaching, Renee looked up. She winced when she saw Alexa was there. "Not you. Not now, please?"

Lucy could see that Renee had been crying not too long ago. Her eyes were bloodshot and her makeup had seen better days. "Uh, are you okay?" the English woman asked, taken aback.

"No," Renee said pathetically.

Lucy turned to her partner and spoke with the authority of the locker room leader. "Lexi, why don't you leave me to it?"

"But..." Alexa started to object, still committed to her promise to Dean.

"Now," Lucy said more firmly.

"Okay, uh, come find me where you're done?"

"Will do," Lucy said, back in best friend mode now that her instruction had been listened to.

As she walked away, Alexa heard Lucy speak to Renee, who had apparently started crying again. "Hey, it's okay," she said soothingly.

All Alexa could do was head back to the locker room and wait for Lucy's return. As she walked in, she saw Clementine sitting with Bayley and Carmella.

"Alexa!" Clem said happily. But then she remembered that Alexa shouldn't have been alone. "Where's Lucy?" she asked.

"She's talking to Renee, sweetheart. I see you're a Baymella fan now?"

"I am while they're not challenging Twisted Thorne," Clem said seriously.

"One day, Clem. One day," Carmella said with a grin. With that, both she and Bayley left Alexa to it, apparently thinking that Lucy would prefer her to be the one to sit for Clementine.

"Is Renee okay?" Clem asked as Alexa sat down next to her.

On the back foot, Alexa wondered if she had heard some comment about Renee's relationship that hadn't been meant for her ears. "What do you mean?" she asked cautiously.

"Mr Helmsley said Lucy has to beat Renee up on the show. I know she's not a proper wrestler, and Lucy hits hard. I don't think she will be looking forward to it."

Alexa had to fight not to laugh. It was about as perfect an assessment as she could have expected from a ten year old. "I don't think she will either, Clem. You're right, Lucy does hit hard sometimes. But she'll be more careful with Renee since, like you said, she's not a wrestler. Arguably the most important part of our job is to make sure we don't hurt the person we're wrestling."

"Okay," Clem said thoughtfully. "What else is important?"

"To listen to the fans. That's how you can tell if your match is going over well, or badly, as the case may be. You have to try and react to what you're hearing to get the reactions you want."

Clementine looked a bit puzzled by that, but then she shrugged. "I guess I'll learn it one day."

"Sorry?" Alexa asked.

"I'll need to learn it when I train to be a wrestler. I told Mr Helmsley I want to work for him one day, and he said maybe I can if I work hard in school and do lots of exercises."

Alexa's heart was melting again. The girl was adorable. But at the same time, it was obvious that she was serious. Hunter had apparently thought the same thing. "Mr Helmsley is a good boss. He's very fair, if you listen to his orders and advice. What exactly did he say?"

"That I have to graduate. He said I can't work here if I don't. So I have to try hard in school, even when it sucks."

"Yeah, Clem, you do," Alexa said sympathetically. "Have you told Lucy and Seth that you want to be a wrestler?"

"No, but I think they must know. I didn't mean to tell Mr Helmsley; it just sort of happened. But he was nice to me. Mrs Helmsley is nice, too. She's always so happy to see Lucy."

This time, Alexa couldn't stop herself from laughing. Even little Clem had noticed Stephanie's girl crush on Lucy. "Yes, Mrs Helmsley really likes Lucy."

"Should I tell them?" Clem asked next, rather ambiguously.

"Do you mean should you tell Lucy and Seth you want to be a wrestler?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, Clem. You should tell them about your conversation with Mr Helmsley, too. I think they'll be proud that you talked to him about it yourself."

"Maybe," Clem said, obviously pleased with the thought.

They chatted away for a few more minutes until Lucy returned to the locker room. Her first order of business was to call Clem over to the door and ask, "Do you want to go down to the ring with Seth?"

"Yes!" she replied excitedly. Playing in the ring was her absolute favourite thing when she came to the shows.

"Good," Lucy smiled. "He's waiting for you outside. I'll see you in a bit, okay?"

"Okay," Clem said cheerfully. She took a step towards the door, but Lucy stopped her.

"Don't I get a hug before you go?"

"Of course!" Clem quickly accepted the offered embrace, being careful not to let her baseball cap fall off in the process.

"Right, off you go," Lucy encouraged after the brief hug. She opened the door for her adopted daughter, who dashed out into the hallway to Seth.

"Seth!" she said loudly. "Bayley showed me how she does her ponytail on the side!"

As the door closed, Alexa was walking over to Lucy. "That girl kills me, Lucy. She's so sweet it's unreal."

"Yeah, she is," Lucy said. The fact that she was only a mother by adoption did nothing to diminish her pride. As was often the case with her, she wasted no time in moving the conversation on as they headed back to sit by their lockers. She did, however, make the concession of speaking quietly so that the others couldn't hear her. "So, I have news for you."

"What news?" Alexa asked, assuming she was referring to Renee.

"Keep it to yourself, because I shouldn't be telling you."

"Okay, okay. Spill," Alexa said impatiently.

"Renee and Finn are done," Lucy revealed, to Alexa's surprise.

"Done? Why?"

"She caught him cheating with someone I'm not going to name."

"Oh, shoot," Alexa breathed. "She caught him in the act? That's savage. And it's brilliant. Screw that guy. Who was he cheating with, anyway? You can't not tell me!"

"I really shouldn't," Lucy said, shaking her head.

"LT! You have to tell me!" Alexa exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "Gossip like this gets shared between best friends. It's what best friends are for!"

"You're going to have to promise not to say a word to anyone else," Lucy said firmly.

"Okay, I promise," Alexa said sincerely. "Now who was it?"

Lucy looked around the room, double checking that there were no ears flapping nearby. When she was satisfied, she whispered the answer. "Emma."

"No!" Alexa whispered, grinning broadly. "I didn't think she had it in her. So Renee walked in on them?"

"Sure did. You know the worst thing about it? It was in their hotel room, and she said Finn knew she would be coming back. It was like he actively did it for her to catch him, so she would break off with him."

"Wow, what an asshole," Alexa said in disbelief. "You mean, like, he wanted a clean break so he could be with Emma, and he saw that as a way to make sure Renee didn't get clingy?"

"That's what she thinks," Lucy said with distaste. "I told her she should have smashed the nearest piece of glass and cut his bollocks off with it."

"She should," Alexa agreed. "So, uh, how was Renee? She looked pretty upset when I was there."

"She was upset. Not so much about Finn, since he's obviously human garbage, but about the fact that two guys have now cheated on her. She doesn't know what she's done wrong."

Despite the animosity between them over the past few months, Alexa felt for Renee in that moment. "She didn't do anything wrong, not with Dean at least. All that happened was she wanted to start a family, he wasn't ready, and it scared him off. I'm honest enough to know that I was just sex to Dean at the start, but now we're in love. That's just how the cards fell. It wasn't Renee's fault; not at all."

"I told her some of that, and I think she listened to me," Lucy said. "I also told her that you really do regret what you did, and that I hope at some point you can mend fences. I said you're both nice girls and being bitches to each other doesn't suit you. That's more of a thing for me and Sasha," she added with a laugh.

"Right," Alexa agreed with a giggle of her own. "What did Renee say to that?"

"She said she would think about it, since we're all working together. I figure that's the best it was going to get with the way she's feeling today."

"Right," Alexa agreed again. "I'm willing to bury the hatchet if she is. I don't like the aggro, and I certainly don't want to get on Hunter's bad side."

"Then give it a couple of weeks, go find Renee, have a private chat with her and apologise unreservedly. That's my advice."

Alexa nodded. "I'll do that."


	41. Chapter 41

Alexa had wondered how long it would be before Lucy, Seth and Clementine had the chance to come and stay with her and Dean. Having the intention to make something happen was one thing. But when you worked for WWE, having the time to do things was not so easy. For that reason, she had been pleasantly surprised that they had only had to wait a few weeks after Clem had officially been adopted.

Now it was the second day of the short visit, and Alexa was having a great time hosting. She knew that her guests were all enjoying themselves, too. Seth certainly was; he and Dean were in the garage, looking at Dean's new project. He had always wanted to try his hand at restoring a classic car, and had recently bought a 1972 Dodge Challenger that was in a real mess for the purpose.

"I think we've lost the guys," Lucy said dryly. "It's been an hour since they went in there."

She and Alexa were sitting on the couch in the living room, chatting away over the morning's second cup of strong coffee. Clementine was sitting on the floor nearby, watching one of her favourite TV shows. The French doors at the end of the room were wide open, letting in a nice breeze.

"Yeah, I'm beginning to regret agreeing to the car idea," Alexa joked. "Dean practically lives in his man cave whenever we're here."

"Hmmm," Lucy said thoughtfully. "Do you think they'd notice if we cleared off to the airport? Us three girls could have our own mini vacation."

Alexa nodded, feigning seriousness. "You know, that's not a bad idea."

"What do you say, Clem?" Lucy asked. "Shall we leave Seth and Dean and go on a girl's vacation?"

Clem turned around to look at them. Realising it was a joke, she played along. "Okay, let's go."

"Yes, Clem!" Alexa said as Lucy laughed.

The child quickly returned her attention to the TV. When she was sure they were not being listened to, Lucy said, "I have to admit I'm a little surprised Renee agreed to sit down with you the other day, Lexi."

"What? You encouraged me to ask her to."

"I know I did. But that doesn't mean I expected her to say yes. I'm glad, of course, just surprised."

"I think she was as sick of the drama as I was, to be honest with you. Like you said the other week, it's not in either of our natures to bitch and snipe at each other all the time."

"What did you say when you sat down with her? You never talked me through the whole conversation."

"I thanked her for agreeing to talk to me, first of all," Alexa said. "She just shrugged, so it wasn't the best start. That's why I just got straight down to business and said that I wanted to apologise, both for what happened with Dean while they were still together, and for some of the things that had been said since."

"And what did she say?" Lucy enquired.

"She said that cheating wasn't something she could forgive, apology or no apology. I said I understood that, and I accepted that forgiveness might be a step too far."

"It certainly would be for me," Lucy opined.

Alexa nodded. "I think it would for most people. I'm not proud of what Dean and I did; I've said that many times. I regret how we got together. But I certainly don't regret that we did get together. Anyway, Renee asked me why I had asked to talk with her if I didn't expect forgiveness. I said what I wanted was to call a truce, if that didn't sound too childish."

"How did she take that?"

"For a moment, I thought she was going to tell me where I could stick my truce. But then she seemed to think twice about it, and her expression softened up a bit. She said, 'You know what? Fine. If you want to call a truce, you got it. We've got to work together, Hunter was quite clear on that, so we might as well be civil about it.' I was happy to hear that, so I thanked her, and we left it at that."

"It's good news," Lucy said with a small smile. "I was afraid at one point that I was going to have to bang your heads together." With that, she got off the couch, adding, "Bathroom visit."

As her friend left the room, Alexa picked up her phone, which was on silent mode. She had two texts to reply to. While she was writing, Clem got up and wandered out through the French doors to the pool area. Something about her body language troubled Alexa, so she got up to follow.

When she walked out of the house, Alexa saw that Clementine had sat down at the edge of the pool, dipping her bare feet into the water. She was crying quietly. Hurrying over there, Alexa said, "Clem? What's the matter, sweetheart?"

Clementine looked away from her, trying to hide her tears. "Nothing," she said sorrowfully.

It was the worst attempt at a lie Alexa had heard for a while. She sat down next to the young girl and gently said, "You're crying, Clem. What's happened?"

Trying to be strong, Clem said, "Somebody on my show just said something that reminded me of my mom." Getting the words out made her burst properly into tears – the tears of a heart-broken child.

Alexa didn't know what to say. No words could possibly help. She just wrapped her arms around Clementine and allowed her to cry, hoping that the release of emotion would at least help a little. Trying to fight her own tears was a tough job. How could anyone not feel for Clem after what she had been through? The kid had no idea how strong she was to be coping as well as she was.

A couple of minutes later, Clem had cried herself out. "I'm sorry," she mumbled into Alexa's chest.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Clem. You're such an amazing, strong, brave girl. You've been through something no child should go through. I wish I was a brave as you; that's the truth."

Clementine didn't say or do anything noticeable, but Alexa could just somehow tell that the words meant a lot to her.

"I feel bad for crying," Clem said eventually. "When I cry and Seth or Lucy see me, I think I'm making them feel like I don't appreciate them."

Alexa squeezed her tightly for a second. "They'd never thing that, sweetie. They love you, and they know you love them. Getting upset about your parents doesn't change that at all."

Clementine pulled away a little bit so that she could look up at Alexa. "I don't know how to show them I appreciate them."

The answer came to Alexa immediately. "You showed them with the wristbands you bought them. That was such a lovely thing to do, and it meant so much to them both. But there are other things you can do to show them you love them. For example, just go sit on the couch with Lucy and cuddle up to her. She would like that."

"Okay," Clem agreed. Then another thought came to her. "I didn't tell them about talking to Mr Helmsley yet, either."

"Really? Then we should go do that now," Alexa said excitedly, glad to have something else for them to focus on.

"Okay," Clem said again. In the way that children somehow could, she had brightened up quickly.

They headed back inside, finding the living room empty. Lucy was obviously still in the bathroom. Alexa helped Clem to dry her eyes so that no one would know she had been crying, then she announced she was going to fetch Dean and Seth from the garage.

"Dean? Seth?" she asked as she walked into the garage, finding the two men under the Dodge's hood, tinkering with the engine.

"Won't be long, darlin'," Dean said.

"You've already been an hour," Alexa pointed out with good humour. "Seth, you need to come speak to Clem. She's got something to tell you. Dean, you can come too."

Seth didn't need to be told twice. "Is everything okay?

"Yeah. Just come," Alexa said as she turned to head back to the living room.

Dean said, "Just give us a minute to wash our hands."

When they had washed up, Dean and Seth joined the others in the living room. Alexa had given up her seat on the couch to Clem, who was cuddling up with Lucy. But when she saw the men come in, she got up. "I have something to tell you," she announced.

Not for the first time, Lucy smiled at how comfortably she took on the role of centre of attention. She would be a good promo performer if ever she decided to become a wrestler, Lucy thought. Little did she know how relevant that thought would be to what she was about to hear.

"Okay, we're listening," Seth said keenly as he sat down next to his fiancée and put an arm around her shoulders.

Looking on with a slightly bemused smile, Dean sat on the arm of the chair Alexa was sitting in. All eyes were on Clementine. Even Alexa was surprised by the first thing she heard.

Clementine looked at Seth and Lucy, feeling her eyes tearing up again. "The first thing I want to say is I love you guys. I know I cry a lot, but you do make me happy. I love you and I like living with you."

"Aww, Clem," Lucy said. She wanted nothing more than to pick her up and hug her, but she fought off the instinct, since she knew Clem had more to say.

"We love you, too, sweet pea," Seth said, borrowing his wife's nickname for their daughter. "And we know and understand why you cry. We'd never hold that against you, ever. You know that, right?"

"Yes," Clem said seriously. She nervously fiddled with her baseball cap as she thought about the next thing she had to bring up.

"What is it, Clem?" Lucy asked, sneaking a confused glance at Seth. Dean did a similar thing to Alexa, who gave nothing away.

"I, uh, spoke to Mr Helmsley a couple of weeks ago. We were in his office and you were talking to Mrs Helmsley," she rambled.

"What did Mr Helmsley say?" Seth encouraged, wondering where this was going.

"I told him I want to work for him one day. I want to be a wrestler like you guys," Clem said sincerely.

Neither of her parents doubted her seriousness. They looked at each other, and Seth saw that Lucy was happy to encourage her, as was he. "It's definitely possible," he said. "But it's a lot of hard work. You can't just tell Mr Helmsley you want to be a wrestler and hope it will happen from there."

"I know that," Clem said, apparently pained by the implication that she didn't. "Mr Helmsley told me I can only think about getting a job at WWE if I graduate school and if I look after my body. That's why I've been trying my hardest in school and with my exercises."

Lucy had noticed the increased intensity in the exercises that she helped Clem with, and was pleased to hear about the improved effort in school. They had a determined and strong-willed girl, there could be no doubting that. She had never been prouder than she was in that moment. Of course, there was a hell of a long way to go, that was putting it mildly, but they would do their best to support Clem on whatever path she chose, so long as it was sensible. Wanting to be a wrestler definitely fitted that criteria.

"Babe?' Seth asked her, seeking confirmation of her thoughts.

"I'm really proud of you for talking to Mr Helmsley, and for listening to his advice," Lucy told Clem. "You do need to do the things he said, then you will have to put a hell of a lot of work into training, if you get offered a job. But Seth and I will help you as best we can. We promise."

Alexa was squeezing Dean's hand tightly as they watched Clem walk forward and hug each of her parents in turn. The whole exchange had been truly heart-warming. Then an idea came to her. What better way to commit the moment to memory than with a picture?

"Guys, let's all get a picture together," she suggested, getting up from the chair and unlocking her phone.

"Yes!" Clem said excitedly.

Seth and Lucy made room for Clem and Alexa to cram onto the couch.

"Come on, Dean, you've got to be in it as well," Alexa said as she got ready to take the shot. She was pleasantly surprised when he got up and came over without griping about it.

Dean rested an arm on the arm of the couch and leaned in so that he was in the shot. He had to at least save face by barely raising a smile, while everyone else grinned like idiots.

Alexa took the shoot, and Lucy immediately punched Dean on the shoulder. "Such a sourpuss," she accused with a giggle.

Dean had to laugh at that as he went back over to the chair and sat down.

"Aww, it's lovely," Alexa said as she got off the couch, showing her phone's screen to Lucy, Seth and Clementine. She knew she would never share the image publically as Lucy and Seth were being secretive when it came to Clem, but she knew what caption she would have given the image if it had been shared.

_Happy times, looking forward to the future._

END

 


End file.
